How to Enable and Optimize WordPress for Featured Images

When I set up WordPress for many of my clients, I am always sure to push them to incorporate featured images throughout their site. Here’s an example from a Salesforce Consultant site that’s launching… I designed a featured image that is aesthetically pleasing, matches the overall branding, and provides some information about the page itself:

While the other social media platforms have their image dimensions, Facebook’s dimensions work well with all other platforms. A great featured image designed for Facebook nicely previews your page, article, post, or even custom post type in LinkedIn and Twitter previews.

What are the Optimal Featured Image Dimensions?

Facebook states that the optimal featured image size is 1200 x 628 pixels for link share images. The minimum size is half of that… 600 x 319 pixels.

Facebook: Images in Link Shares

Here are some tips on preparing WordPress for featured image usage.

Enable Featured Images on Pages and Post Types

WordPress comes configured for featured images on blog posts by default, but it doesn’t do it for pages. That’s honestly an oversight in my opinion… when a page is shared on social media, being able to control the image that’s previewed can dramatically increase your click-through rate from social media.

To incorporate featured images on pages, you can customize your theme or child theme’s functions.php file with the following:

add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails', array( 'post', 'page' ) );

You can also add any custom post types you’ve registered in that array as well.

Add a Featured Image Column to Your Page and Posts View in WordPress Admin

You’ll want to easily view and update which of your pages and posts have a featured image applied, so I’ve shared code that you can add to your theme’s functions.php file that will display it along with a mouseover title of the image title and dimensions.

Here’s a preview:

Set a Default Social Media Image

I also installed and configured a default social image using the Rank Math SEO plugin. While Facebook doesn’t guarantee that they’ll use the image you specify, I don’t see them ignore it very often. Navigate to Titles & Meta > Global Meta and scroll down to the OpenGraph Thumbnail where you can upload a default image.

Add a Tip for Your WordPress Users

Because my clients are often writing and publishing their own pages, posts, and articles, I modify their WordPress theme or child theme to remind them of the optimal image size.

Just add this snippet to functions.php:

add_filter('admin_post_thumbnail_html', 'add_featured_image_text');
function add_featured_image_text($content) {
    return $content .= '<p>Facebook recommends 1200 x 628 pixel size for link share images.</p>';
}

Add a Featured Image to Your RSS Feed

If you’re using your RSS feed to display your blog on another site or feed your email newsletter, you’ll want to publish the image within the actual feed. You can easily do this using some code to add to your functions.php file: