Genesis - How to change your website preview image when sharing

When sharing your website (sending by text message, sharing on Facebook, etc), an image is automatically pulled from your site as the "preview image." If you're sharing your homepage — i.e. yourwebsite.com — typically, the first image on your website is the image that is selected as the preview image. This is sometimes your favicon, sometimes an image on your homepage, or occasionally a random image.

Note: when linking to individual blog posts, the featured image of the post will always be the preview image (even if you set a new default image as described below).

How to select a new default image

The image selection is controlled by Open Graph tags. There are two ways to select a new default Open Graph image:

  • Using the built-in SEO Settings that come with the Genesis Framework
  • Using Yoast SEO

Via SEO Settings

The Genesis SEO Settings will only be available to you if you do not already have an SEO plugin installed. For example, if you already have Yoast installed, the SEO Settings menu will not be visible. Follow the Yoast SEO instructions below instead.

  1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Genesis > SEO Settings > Open Graph.
  2. Check the "Enable Open Graph" box.
  3. Under Default Image, click Select Image and choose an image from your Media Library.
  4. Click the blue Publish button at the top of the Customizer.
Note: This changes the default/fallback image only. If there is a favicon or featured image available instead, that will be picked up first. Click here for more information on Genesis Open Graph settings.

Via Yoast SEO

  1. Go to Plugins > Add New.
  2. Search Yoast, install the plugin, and then activate.
  3. Then follow the instructions here to change your Open Graph image: https://yoast.com/help/custom-open-graph-tags