Why Isn't My Featured Image Showing When Sharing on WhatsApp?

If you're using SEOPress – On-site SEO and find that your post's featured image isn't appearing when you share a link on WhatsApp, you're not alone. This is a common issue reported by users, but the good news is that it's often not a bug with the plugin itself. This guide will explain why this happens and walk you through the most effective troubleshooting steps.

Understanding the Problem

WhatsApp, being a part of Facebook (Meta), relies on the same Open Graph (OG) meta tags that Facebook uses to generate link previews. When you share a URL, WhatsApp's crawler fetches the page and looks for specific OG tags, like og:image, to determine what image to display.

The issue arises when WhatsApp shows your site's default logo instead of a post's specific featured image. This typically indicates one of two things:

1. Open Graph data is not properly configured for that specific page.
2. WhatsApp has a cached, older version of the page's metadata.

Most Common Solutions

1. Verify Open Graph is Enabled in SEOPress

First, ensure that the Open Graph feature is activated within the SEOPress plugin settings.

1. Navigate to SEOPress > Social Networks in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Select the Facebook OG tab.
3. Ensure that Enable Open Graph data is toggled on.
4. While you're there, verify that the Default featured image is set correctly, but know that SEOPress should automatically use a post's featured image if one is available.

2. Force WhatsApp to Refresh Its Cache (The Most Important Step)

This is often the definitive solution. WhatsApp caches link previews to improve performance, which means even after you fix your OG tags, it might still show the old, incorrect image. Since there is no public "WhatsApp Debugger," you can use the Facebook Sharing Debugger tool, as WhatsApp uses the same technology.

1. Go to the Facebook Sharing Debugger.
2. Enter the URL of the post that is not sharing correctly and click Debug.
3. The tool will show you exactly what Facebook (and therefore WhatsApp) sees. Review the og:image tag to confirm it now points to the correct featured image.
4. Click the Scrape Again button. This forces Facebook's crawler to update its cache for your URL.

After scraping, wait a few minutes and try sharing your link on WhatsApp again. You may need to completely close and restart WhatsApp on your phone for the change to take effect.

3. Check for Image Size and Format Issues

While the threads did not highlight this as the primary cause, it's good practice to ensure your images are optimized for social sharing. The recommended size for OG images is 1200 x 630 pixels. Using very small or extremely large images can sometimes cause unexpected behavior.

Conclusion

In most cases, the missing featured image on WhatsApp shares is not a permanent error but a caching issue. By enabling Open Graph in SEOPress and using the Facebook Debugger to scrape your URL again, you can usually resolve the problem and ensure your content is shared with the correct visual preview.