Have you noticed anything different in your newsfeed lately? Larger link previews have appeared going along with Facebook’s drive to become a more visual social platform.

Check out the difference…

Before

Text-heavy link preview with a small square image thumbnail. Not ideal.

After

New and improved link preview with emphasis on the image. It’s taken on the full-width of the post and as a result more of the photo is visible.

What does this mean for you?

Before, it was always recommended that you upload a photo whenever you share a link because photos tend to have higher engagement and more click-throughs than shared links alone. Something like this…

The problem with this is that you need to include the link in the copy because if you click the photo it takes you to a light box with more photo details instead of taking you directly to the post.

This is great if you’re looking for engagement, but what about click-throughs? Are you missing out because users are more likely to click on the photo than the link in the post?

The new link preview photo layout may change this. The photo is more prominent and will not only give viewers a better idea of what the post is about, but also acts as a direct link to the content.

This is especially important when promoting posts on Facebook because you don’t want to waste your budget on image clicks instead of link clicks.

In the end, it’s a toss up because we know that Facebook’s edgerank algorithm prefers photos to shared links. Maybe the algorithm is changing to adapt?

It’s too soon to see results from the pages I’m currently working on but stay updated by subscribing below.

As always, feel free to share and spread the word.

Leave a comment below telling me what you think about this recent feature update.