Beginners Guide to Social Networks Settings for Facebook

Are you looking to get started with the Social Networks features in All in One SEO?

This beginners guide will walk you through the simple steps to use these features for Facebook.

Why Use the Social Networks Features?

These days a good presence on social media is just as important as a good presence on search engines.

You maintain this presence using your own Facebook Page or profile, but also through Like and Share buttons on your website where visitors can share your content on their Facebook profile.

When your content is shared on Facebook, it may be displayed with a title, description and an image like the example below.

Your goal is to attract the attention of people as they scroll through their Facebook feed and get them to click on your content and visit your site.

The Social Networks features in All in One SEO mean you can control how your content looks on Facebook, increasing the likelihood that people will see your content and click through to your site.

Now that we know why it's important, let's look at how we use All in One SEO to control how our content appears on Facebook.

Home Page Settings for Facebook

To get started, click on Social Meta in the All in One SEO menu. You'll see that Home Page Settings is the first section.

If you want to use the SEO title and description you've set under All in One SEO » General Settings » Home Page Settings then you can enable the Use AIOSEO Title and Description setting by checking the checkbox. This will hide the Home Title and Home Description fields.

The first field we're going to complete is the Site Name field. Type the name of your site or business in this field.

Next, let's set the title that will appear when your homepage is shared on Facebook. Enter the title for your homepage in the Home Title field.

Next we'll set the description. Enter the description for your homepage in the Home Description field.

Finally, we're going to set an image in the Home Image field that will appear in Facebook when your homepage is shared.

To set your image, click on the Upload Image button and upload an image, or choose an image from your Media Library.

You can also type or paste the URL for an image into the Home Image field.

Important:
Facebook prefers images that are 1200 pixels wide by 630 pixels tall. The minimum dimensions they accept are 200 pixels by 200 pixels. Full details can be found in Facebook’s documentation here.

Facebook Image Settings

Next, we’re going to choose which image is used when your content is shared on Facebook. Follow these instructions for Setting the Facebook Image Source.

Once you've done that, you can set a default Facebook image which will be used as a fall back if no other image is set. Follow these instructions for Setting the Default Facebook Image.

Enable Facebook for Post Types

Next, we'll choose which content we want to use All in One SEO to set the Facebook meta for. Use the check boxes in the Enable Facebook Meta for Post Types setting to choose which content you want to enable Facebook meta for.

Facebook Object Types

Next, we'll set the Object Types for our content. Facebook uses these to determine the appearance of your content when it's shared.

Follow these instructions for Setting the Default Object Types for Facebook.

Individual Page/Post Settings

Now that we've set the general Facebook settings and the settings for the homepage, let's set the title, description and image for individual post or page.

When you edit a post or page and scroll down to the All in One SEO section and click on the Social Settings tab.

In the Title field, enter the title you want to appear when this post or page is shared on Facebook. If you don't specify a title then All in One SEO will use the SEO title you set on the Main Settings tab of this All in One SEO box. If you haven’t set an SEO title then All in One SEO will use the title of the post or page.

In the Description field, enter the description you want to appear when this post or page is shared on Facebook. If you don't specify a description then All in One SEO will use the SEO description you set on the Main Settings tab of this All in One SEO box.  If you haven’t set an SEO description then All in One SEO will use the Post Excerpt, or the first 1000 characters of the post content if there is no Post Excerpt.

Use the Image field to select the image you want to appear when this post or page is shared on Facebook. This will override any other setting in the main Social Meta settings.

You can use the Custom Image field to upload an image or paste the URL for an image into the field.

Important: Facebook recommends that you use images that are at least 1200 pixels wide by 630 pixels tall for the best results.

If you want Facebook to display a video instead of an image then enter the URL for a video in the Custom Video field.

You can use the Facebook Object Type drop down to select a different Object Type for this post or page. This will override the setting in the main Social Meta settings.

That's all! You can now share your post or page on Facebook and it should use the title, description and image or video you've set.