LinkedIn link preview not updating

LinkedIn builds a link card from your page’s Open Graph tags, stores that scrape, and reuses it. After you change the title or image, the feed can keep showing the old card until LinkedIn fetches the page again. Use this order: verify the public HTML, refresh with Post Inspector, unstick image URLs, then decide what to do about posts that already published.

Why LinkedIn still shows the old card

1. LinkedIn has a cached scrape. The page is correct; LinkedIn has not refreshed yet.
2. Your stack still serves old HTML to crawlers (page cache, CDN, full-page cache plugin).
3. The post was created before the fix. Existing posts often keep their original card.
4. LinkedInBot cannot read the page or image (login wall, bot block, redirect loop, private CDN).
5. Competing og:image tags from a theme plus an SEO plugin.

If the image fails on every network, start with why your og:image is not showing.

Step 1: Check the tags your page actually sends

1. Open the live URL people share (same path and query string).
2. Use View Source and search for og:.
3. Confirm one og:title, one og:description, and one og:image.
4. Confirm og:image is an absolute https:// URL.
5. Open the image in a private window with no login.
6. Confirm the article is public (no soft login gate for anonymous visitors).

Paste the URL into the Link Preview Checker. If View Source is stale, purge page cache and CDN before touching LinkedIn. Refreshing Post Inspector cannot invent tags your origin does not emit.

If you need a clean reference snippet while debugging a CMS, use the Meta Tag Generator.

Step 2: Refresh with Post Inspector

1. Open the LinkedIn Post Inspector and sign in.
2. Paste the exact share URL and click Inspect.
3. Compare title, description, and image to your page.

Inspecting the URL makes LinkedIn fetch again and refresh stored preview data for that string. If the first result is still old, wait a few minutes and inspect again without changing anything else. Our LinkedIn Post Inspector page summarizes common tool messages.

Step 3: Change the image file name when the picture sticks

When text updates but the image does not:

1. Create a 1200×627 (or 1200×630) PNG/JPG.
2. Upload under a new file name.
3. Point og:image at the new absolute URL.
4. Inspect again.

Build the card in the OG Image Generator, or crop with the Image Resizer. Validate file dimensions with the Social Image Checker. Numbers and notes live on the OG image size guide and the LinkedIn size page.

LinkedIn’s absolute minimum is often cited as 200×200, but that size produces a small thumbnail. Keep important text inside a safe margin; LinkedIn can crop edges on some surfaces.

Step 4: Existing posts vs new shares

Post Inspector helps new shares of the URL. An existing post usually keeps the card it was created with. Editing the post body does not always rebuild the preview.

If the old card matters:

1. Confirm Post Inspector shows the correct preview.
2. Delete the old post (if appropriate) and share the link again, or
3. Publish a new post with the same URL and verify that card.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Inspecting a UTM URL while og:url points elsewhere	Align share URL, canonical, and og:url
Multiple plugins emitting Open Graph	Keep a single source of tags
Bot protection blocking LinkedInBot	Allow the crawler for page and image
Image only reachable after redirects or auth	Serve a direct public file
Oversized uploads that time out	Compress; prefer well under a few MB

Company pages, personal posts, and scheduling tools

LinkedIn surfaces the same scraped URL in personal feeds, company pages, and many scheduling tools. If a scheduler uploaded a custom thumbnail when the post was created, that upload can override the live Open Graph scrape for that specific post. In that case Post Inspector can look correct while the scheduled post still shows the old artwork—edit or recreate the scheduled item after the inspector is green.

Also watch for link shorteners. Inspecting lnkd.in (or another shortener) is not the same as inspecting your canonical article URL. Always inspect the final destination that appears in og:url and in View Source.

When Post Inspector and the live site disagree

If Post Inspector still shows an old title after View Source is updated:

1. Confirm you are not behind a full-page cache that serves bots a different document than it serves you.
2. Confirm the image host returns 200 with an image content type for anonymous requests.
3. Wait a few minutes and inspect again without changing files.
4. Only then rename the image and update og:image.

Document each change so you know which step fixed the card. Guessing and changing five things at once makes the next outage harder to debug. Prefer one controlled change, one Inspect run, and a written note of the result before you try the next idea.

Quick checklist

• One absolute og:image in View Source
• Image opens logged-out; prefer about 1200 by 627 pixels
• HTML caches purged after publishing
• Post Inspector shows the correct card for the exact share URL
• New file name used if the image was stuck
• Old post re-shared only when necessary
• Shorteners and scheduler custom thumbnails ruled out

For the Facebook equivalent workflow, see Facebook link preview not updating. On WordPress, confirm which plugin owns social tags in How to set an OG image in WordPress.