LinkedIn Post Inspector: Expert Tips for Turning Link Previews into Your Lead Generation Ally

When you post any link on LinkedIn, here’s what you’ll ideally see:

But sometimes, the link could show incorrect or insufficient information. The title doesn’t match the one on a webpage the link directs to, or there’s no image to accompany your link.

This might seem like no big deal. But in reality, misleading previews can damage your reputation and cost you precious engagement.  According to LinkedIn, such issues might result in 2x lower comment rates.

In a highly competitive world of social selling, this often equals losing potential leads and profits.

Luckily, you can easily avoid this pitfall by using LinkedIn Post Inspector – the tool that can make your posts always look professional. In this article, we’ll explain how to use it to make your content strategy a powerful lead-generation source.

What is LinkedIn Post Inspector?

LinkedIn Post Inspector is a free tool you can use to ensure your post link is displayed correctly on LinkedIn. It allows you to preview the post information and make the needed adjustments for the following elements:

• The cover image for your post
• The post title
• The post metadata

This helps to make sure your audience sees the up-to-date information about your post.

Here’s an example of an incorrectly displayed post:

How LinkedIn Post Inspector works

LinkedIn Post Inspector is essentially an Open Graph debugger, a tool that analyzes Open Graph metadata embedded in web pages. Open Graph tags in your website’s HTML (“og:title”, “og:description”, “og:image”) determine how links appear when you share them on social media platforms.

If any of these tags are missing or incorrect, your link preview might not be displayed properly. 

Learn more about LinkedIn algorithms and how they influence your postings from this quick video:

Why use LinkedIn Post Inspector

The LinkedIn algorithm might lower the visibility of your post if you change it too soon after posting. So, if you post a link to your website and it doesn’t display correctly, even if you fix the issue immediately, your engagement might suffer. And if you don’t do anything about it, many readers might avoid clicking on the link entirely.

Using LinkedIn URL Inspector is the most reliable way to check if everything shows up properly before you post. It fetches the latest metadata (title, image, and description) from your link, allowing you to spot and fix any errors. 

Besides, it shows you the post updates, if any. Say, if you’ve decided to update your blog post, the Inspector will show you the final post update. 

Finally, the tool is absolutely free and doesn’t even require a LinkedIn login, which makes it a reliable ally for LinkedIn content publishing.

Limitations of LinkedIn Post Inspector

LinkedIn Inspector doesn’t work with private or restricted content. It also doesn’t debug previews for other social networking sites – only for LinkedIn. 

Most importantly – the LinkedIn post checker only helps you with posting, which is a small fraction of the successful social selling strategy. It is not a holistic solution that can help you boost the visibility of your business portfolio on LinkedIn, increasing sales.

→ Read an easy guide on how to add an impeccable portfolio on LinkedIn.

🔎 Expert advice: Improve your visibility and engagement by interacting with your prospects’ profiles and posts automatically. For example, with the Snov.io LinkedIn outreach automation, you can view people’s profiles and like their posts absolutely on autopilot. Plus, the tool allows you to build more meaningful connections by automating the sending of highly personalized connection requests, messages, InMails, and even emails: While relying on automation, people often worry about safety. You don’t need to. Snov.io ensures your LinkedIn account will be protected from restrictions. Plus, the tool works as a cloud-based solution and offers a location-based proxy to ensure top security.

How to use LinkedIn Post Inspector

Regardless of the limitations, checking the LinkedIn post preview with a LinkedIn Post Inspector can save you major headaches. Besides, using this tool is quick and straightforward. Simply follow these steps:

1. Go to the LinkedIn Post Inspector page. The empty field should appear at the top of the page:

2. Enter the URL you want to include in your post in the empty field and click the Inspect button.

3. The first info you’ll see is the image element of the LinkedIn preview:

4. Then, the tool will display the URL information:

Under URL information, you might see when LinkedIn last scraped the data from the link.

The fetched URL is the actual link LinkedIn fetches and processes when you do the posting.

The canonical URL is the preferred URL that tells LinkedIn and search engines which page version is authoritative (in case you’ve got several versions of the page).

Ideally, fetched and canonical ULRs should match. If not, it might indicate you’re redirecting LinkedIn to a different URL. LinkedIn might catch an older version of your page.

URL redirect trial shows how your link travels when someone shares it.

5. Below the URL information, you can also find more detailed technical info about your link and webpage’s metadata:

You can click on any value to view how LinkedIn chose it and check the alternatives it could consider for metadata optimization.

How to debug your LinkedIn link preview if Post Inspector detects any issues

Let’s say you’ve checked the preview, and it doesn’t look like you want it to. Usually, LinkedIn renders the incorrect title, image, or description due to cached data. Sometimes, the problem might also be in the size of your page’s image or title. 

Here are some expert recommendations you can follow to fix the issues:

1. Ensure your page’s image meets LinkedIn’s recommended size (1200×627 pixels).
2. Rewrite your title so it doesn’t exceed 150 characters.
3. Check your page’s Open Graph tags by viewing its source code. For example, to see the Snov.io blog source code, you’d have to type view-source:https://snov.io/blog/ in the browser address bar.
4. Fix og tags using HTML (if you’ve got access to the code) or the content management system if you use any.
5. Refresh cache.
6. Run LinkedIn Post Inspector again to force a cache refresh.

How to refresh the cache with LinkedIn Prospect Inspector

It’s super easy. You just need to repeat the process you did while previewing the link in Post Inspector:

1. Open the tool.
2. Enter the link and click ‘Inspect’.
3. Your cache must be refreshed now.

If you’ve tried the above steps and the updates didn’t show up immediately, repeat after a few minutes.

What to do if LinkedIn Post Inspector is not working correctly

If you’ve tried debugging your LinkedIn link’s preview and nothing has changed, the following actions might solve the problem:

• Check the link you’ve provided once again.
• Check the internet connection.
• Clear your website’s cache manually or employ special tools outside of LinkedIn. For example, you can use the WP Rocket plug-in if your website is powered by WordPress.
• Recheck for missing or incorrect OG tags.

Turn off LinkedIn automation software if you’re using any, or try a different browser or device. Sometimes, browser settings or extensions interfere with the LinkedIn cache debugger’s functionality.

🔎 Expert hack: If you still see an old preview of your content after updating it and refreshing the cache doesn’t help, try adding one of the quireies ?updated, ?latest, ?new, at the end of the link.

Note that LinkedIn takes time to update. After you’ve made any changes to your website, wait a few minutes before checking the preview again.

Does LinkedIn Post Inspector check all links?

Yes, this LinkedIn debugger accepts all links you post, whether it’s a blog post, a link to a video, or any other type of content you’d like to share. 

Let’s see it in action. I’ve posted the link to our latest video, and the tool has generated the preview:

And here’s the metadata:

Is LinkedIn Post Inspector mobile-friendly?

Absolutely. And you don’t need to download any special app. Just follow the link we’ve provided in the section ‘How to use LinkedIn Post Inspector.’ Here’s how the preview looks on the mobile:

Just ensure you’re logged in to LinkedIn. If not, the system will ask you to do this before using the tool.

🎁 As soon as your posts get noticed, LinkedIn users will start visiting your profile. Your portfolio on LinkedIn is your business card. Start creating it by optimizing your profile. You’ll find the best tips in this free guide.

Not just LinkedIn: Open Graph debuggers for other platforms

While LinkedIn is the most popular platform for B2B social selling, some businesses also use other networking sites. The LinkedIn Open Graph debugger doesn’t work for them, but nearly all social media platforms have similar tools to generate and debug link previews.

Facebook	Facebook Sharing Debugger
X (Twitter)	Twitter Card Validator
Pinterest	Pinterest Rich Pins Validator
Slack	Slack Link Unfurl Debugger

Using the right debugger for each platform ensures your shared content appears correctly and professionally.

Bottom line

Well-written and optimized LinkedIn posts boost your credibility. They are essential for your business’s success on this networking platform. Using LinkedIn Post Inspector is a simple yet effective way to make sure your posts look good and drive engagement. 

While LinkedIn Post Inspector helps fix preview issues, it’s just one step in building a strong LinkedIn presence. If you’re interested in a more comprehensive guide to social selling, sign up for our free LinkedIn Automation course. You’ll learn how to create a winning business portfolio on LinkedIn and grow sales with expert tips from Snov.io.