Featured images on Twitter don’t display

Hi!

Twitter cards are only visible if you use a few special meta tags in your website. Our plugin doesn’t generate these tags, as this is something that plugins like Yoast SEO or even themes do.

I recommend you install Yoast SEO (or any other plugin that includes social meta tags) in your website and things should work.

Hi David,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
The issue is, it worked on one post but didn’t work on the others – plus it seems to work just fine on Facebook and Instagram; so I don’t quite understand why this is an issue on Twitter only?
As for the special meta tags – there aren’t any being used; it’s just the same as any WordPress site – none are being added manually…so I’m still somewhat lost on what to do.
I can try Yoast, but I don’t want to be adding more plugins to my website, making it slower, just for the sake of a Twitter image; if that makes sense?

The issue is, it worked on one post but didn’t work on the others

No, it probably didn’t.

If you try to share a link directly on Twitter, you’ll see that it doesn’t include a preview card like this one does: https://twitter.com/NelioSoft/status/1238268777902624768

That’s because, as I said, your website doesn’t include the meta tags required by Twitter.

Now, why do you think it did work in the past? Well, if I had to guess, that’s probably because our plugin published a tweet with an image. Something like this tweet: https://twitter.com/NelioSoft/status/1238283880500789249

As you can see, both tweets look similar, but they’re actually different. The former shows a “card” with the title and excerpt of the post, whereas the latter shares an image (which, in this case, is the same image we used as the shared post’s featured image).

Our plugin generates social messages randomly and, therefore, it’s not guaranteed that it’ll generate a tweet with an image attached. But (usually) all tweets include a link so, if you have the correct metas in your site, the preview card will always be available.

it seems to work just fine on Facebook and Instagram; so I don’t quite understand why this is an issue on Twitter only?

They use a different set of meta tags. Moreover, I think they’re able to pull the featured image and title even if their own meta tags are not in place…

I can try Yoast, but I don’t want to be adding more plugins to my website, making it slower, just for the sake of a Twitter image; if that makes sense?

It definitely does. But using an SEO plugin can definitely help and the performance impact it’ll have on your site is very small.

Hi David,

Okay, understood – that all makes sense.
So I’ve gone ahead and got the plugin, but not really sure how that really works in conjunction with Nelio – could you expand?

Yoast SEO is a plugin that adds a few tags in your HTML pages aimed at improving your SEO (i.e. how well you rank in search engines like Google). Some of these tags include, for instance, the title and excerpt that a search engine should show in its search results when your page appears in it.

Among its features, it also adds the meta tags required by Twitter. Just follow their instructions: https://yoast.com/help/setting-up-twitter-cards-in-wordpress-seo/

Fantastic, that seems to have fixed it.
Keep up the great work, David ??

That’s awesome! Thanks for using our plugin ??

Hi David,
Just coming back to this issue – it would seem the issue is now intermittent.
Despite having Yoast installed, some posts are still displaying an image and not a link; see this tweet for example:

BMW reaffirms its commitment to hydrogen fuel cell technology @bmw @BMW_UK @BMWi #BMW #Power #Hydrogen #FCEV #FuelCell https://t.co/hJM1godUcW pic.twitter.com/r7J94D504w

— TotallyEV (@TotallyEVNet) March 30, 2020

While this one seems to work fine:

EAV teams up with Finnish eBike manufacturer Revonte @EAVcargo @RevonteLtd #Electric #eBike #Bike #Bikes #EV #EAV #Revonte https://t.co/m5bB7V6FtH

— TotallyEV (@TotallyEVNet) March 28, 2020

To confirm:
I have Yoast enabled, with the appropriate social media handles; have Twitter with meta cards enabled: summary with large image.

In Nelio’s settings, mode is Double-Quote Mode and Autoset featured is disabled.

Any insights?

Yes, that’s completely normal. Every now and then our plugin might share a tweet with an image embedded on it. This image can either be your featured image or an image pulled from your post’s copy.

We do this so that tweets look a little bit more diverse. There’s nothing to worry about ??

Ah is there any way not to have this happen?

Currently, it’s not possible to configure this.

I see okay – at least I now know it’s a ‘feature’ ??

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Chris.