WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Sharing Pages to Social Media and Search Engines

• Site-Wide Default Image
• Post- and Page-Level Settings
• Custom Meta Tag Settings
• Meta Tag Documentation

Site-Wide Default Image

This is an image that will be used when links to your site are shared on social media. This will be used as a fall back if there is no featured image set for a given page.

1. Navigate to the Dashboard of your site
2. Hover over Appearance on the left menu and choose Customize
3. Select the Site Identity option in the Customizer
   
   
   
   
4. Scroll to the very bottom where it says Default Meta Image
   
   
   
   
5. Click on the dotted box that says Select the default meta image
6. Your media library window will appear
7. Either upload a new image or select an existing image from your media library
8. Click Choose Image
9. In the Customizer, scroll to the top of the Site Identity options and click the blue Publish button **Note: without this step, your changes will not save
   
   

Post- and Page-Level Settings

Note: The UW Theme still uses the excerpts and featured images within your site and you should still use those fields as normal. 

1. Create a new page or post on your site or access an existing one
2. Scroll to the very bottom of the page or post and locate the area called Meta Tag Settings
   
   
   
   
3. You have the option to update a few settings, based on what you'd like to display on social media sites or in search engines: title, image, description, Twitter card type, and custom meta tags
4. Important: Anything you add (ex: featured image) will override the defaults
   • If the title field is left blank, the post/page title will be used
   • If the image field is left blank, the Featured Image will be used. If no Featured Image is set, the site's default image will be used
   • If the Description field is blank, text from the excerpt field will be used
5. Important: If you do not believe you require specific meta tag settings, please do not edit this area. These are not required and are only needed in certain circumstances.
6. When finished, make sure to scroll up to the top of the page and click the Publish button

Custom Meta Tag Settings

If you require very specific display options for your social media and search engine displays, you can include additional meta tag settings to your page or post in your meta tag settings. 

1. Navigate to the Custom Meta Tags area of your Meta Tag Settings (at the bottom of the page)
   
   
   
   
2. Click on the Add Meta Tag button
3. Enter the Property and your content for the meta tag
4. Note: The meta tag documentation below may help you with knowing which properties are available
5. When finished, make sure to scroll up to the top of the page and click the Publish button

Meta Tag Documentation

1. Open Graph
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. LinkedIn

Troubleshooting

• Note: If you decide to use the open graph settings, you are not required to use all of the options. If you only want to override one component of what is displayed (ex: Title), you may do so. A combination of default and custom options can be chosen.
  
  
• To test your posts using the meta tags, please use the Open Graph XYZ site.
  
  
• Your page or post must be Published in order to share it with social media sites.

See Also:

• WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Using Media Library to Add Images or Documents
• WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Finding and Editing the Excerpt of a Page
• WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Site-Wide Settings in the Customizer