Covers for WordPress posts in a minute

You published a post and shared the link in Telegram or VK. Instead of a bright card there is grey text or a random picture from the site header. People scroll past such links: there is nothing to catch the eye.

A link cover is the picture that social networks and messengers show in the preview. Its address comes from the og:image tag in the page code. Usually an SEO plugin fills it in, but the picture there is often either the wrong one or missing altogether.

• The post has no suitable picture, and a small thumbnail will not do: it looks blurry or cropped in the preview.
• Drawing a cover in an editor for every post takes long: you have to pick the size, font and colors.
• One shared banner for the whole site makes every link look the same, and the preview does not tell what the post is about.

You want the cover to be built from the post title and always look neat.

The plugin adds an “OGImg Covers — post cover” box to the post editor. The title, excerpt and site name are filled in from the post. All you do is pick a style, and the cover is ready. What is inside:

• The same styles as in the online editor at og-studio.online. Holiday styles (Halloween, Black Friday, New Year) appear on their dates.
• Live preview right in the post editor.
• Photo styles: “Photo background” and “Product & price” use the post’s featured image.
• Short image links like ogimg.su/img/Ab3xKp9f instead of long URLs.
• Covers for existing posts in one click: Tools → OGImg Covers.
• The [ogimg_covers_cover] shortcode to place the cover inside the post.
• Works with Yoast SEO: the cover replaces its og:image when enabled for the post.

The plugin does not create database tables and stores no images on your hosting. Settings are kept in post meta and one option.

1. In WordPress go to “Plugins → Add New”, search for “OGImg Covers”, click “Install Now” and activate it. The plugin is in the WordPress.org directory. Prefer a ZIP? Download it on the plugin page and use “Add New → Upload Plugin”.
2. Open any post: the cover box is already below the editor, the fields are filled in.
3. Pick a style, tick “og:image” and click “Update”.

Optionally, set a default style for new posts in “Settings → OGImg Covers”.

Open the link preview checker, paste the post URL and see how it looks on social networks. If a network still shows the old preview, it remembered the previous picture: see how to refresh the preview cache. If a link has no preview at all, see why a link has no preview.

The plugin is free. Covers made with the free version have a small og-studio.online label in the corner. Pro subscribers can remove it with a Pro key in the plugin settings.

Already published links keep showing from social network caches. New previews appear as soon as the service is back. If a short link cannot be created, the plugin uses the full image address.

Every post gets its own cover built from its own title, with no designer and no manual work. The link stands out more in the feed, and the preview shows what the post is about.