How to Preview a LinkedIn Post Before Publishing

Ever hit ‘Post’ on LinkedIn, walk away feeling great, then come back later to find your carefully crafted message looks… off? A broken link preview, an awkwardly cropped image, or weird text spacing can instantly derail your message and make your brand look sloppy. This article walks you through exactly how to preview your LinkedIn posts before they go live, so you can publish with total confidence every single time.

Why Previewing Your LinkedIn Post is a Non-Negotiable Step

You wouldn't send a marketing email to thousands of subscribers without testing it first, right? The same logic applies to your professional brand on LinkedIn. Rushing the final step can undo all the hard work you put into writing and creating your content. Taking a few extra seconds to preview isn't about being picky, it's a fundamental part of a professional content strategy.

Here’s what you can catch with a quick preview:

• Formatting Errors: Did that bold text actually work? Are your bullet points showing up correctly? A preview immediately shows you how LinkedIn interprets your formatting, helping you avoid a dreaded wall of text.
• Flawed Link Previews: This is a massive one. When you share a URL, LinkedIn pulls an image, a headline, and a short description to create a clickable card. Often, it grabs the wrong image (like a site logo instead of the article's hero photo) or cuts off the headline. Previewing this card is vital for driving clicks.
• Bad Image or Video Cropping: You spent time creating a fantastic visual, but LinkedIn's feed might crop it in an unflattering way, cutting off important text or an essential part of the image. A preview shows you exactly how your media will be framed on desktop and mobile.
• Broken Mentions and Hashtags: Did you correctly @mention that company or collaborator? Sometimes a typo can mean a tag doesn't work, and you'll miss out on the extra reach and notification. A preview helps confirm that all your tags are active.

Catching these small mistakes before you publish makes the difference between a post that elevates your brand and one that feels amateurish.

Natively Previewing on LinkedIn: What You Can (and Can't) Do

LinkedIn does offer some built-in or related tools that give you a partial glimpse of your finished post. While not a complete solution, they are a good starting point and are essential for diagnosing issues with link sharing.

The Live Composer Preview

When you start writing a post directly on LinkedIn's desktop website, the composer works as a live editor. When you highlight text and apply bold or create a bulleted list, you see the changes in real-time. This is great for getting a general feel for your text's structure and flow.

However, this live preview is limited. It won't show you exactly how an uploaded photo will be cropped in the feed, and most importantly, it can be fickle with how it generates a preview for an external link.

The Secret Weapon for Links: LinkedIn’s Post Inspector

If you've ever pasted a link into LinkedIn and been horrified by the ugly, irrelevant, or missing image it pulls, the Post Inspector is your best friend. This free developer tool tells LinkedIn to "re-scrape" the data from a URL and shows you exactly which image, title, and description it will use in the link preview card.

It’s perfect for two scenarios:

1. You want to check how a link will look before you post it.
2. You posted a link, the preview looked wrong, so you fixed the issue on your website and now need LinkedIn to show the updated preview.

Here's how to use it:

• Step 1: Find the tool. Simply Google "LinkedIn Post Inspector" or go directly to linkedin.com/post-inspector/.
• Step 2: Enter your URL. Copy the full web address of the article or page you want to share and paste it into the field.
• Step 3: Click "Inspect."

The tool will return a preview of the card that will appear on LinkedIn, showing the exact image, title, and other metadata it found. If it looks wrong, the issue is almost always with the "Open Graph" (OG) tags on your website. You or your developer will need to check the page's HTML <,head>, section for tags like og:title, og:description, and especially og:image, and make sure they specify the content you want shown.

The Big Limitation: The Post Inspector is incredible for link cards, but that’s all it does. It doesn't show you your link card combined with your written copy, @mentions, or hashtags. You still can't see the full picture of your final post.

The Foolproof Preview Method: Using a Social Media Scheduler

To see exactly how your entire post - text, media, link preview, and tags - will appear together in the LinkedIn feed, the most reliable method is to use a dedicated social media management tool. These platforms are designed specifically to eliminate guesswork and provide a pixel-perfect preview before you commit to publishing.

While different tools have slightly different interfaces, the process is generally the same and incredibly straightforward:

1. Connect Your Account: Securely link your LinkedIn personal profile or Company Page to the platform.
2. Draft Your Post: Use the tool's post composer to write your text, add your hashtags, and @mention other accounts. Good schedulers have built-in formatting options that reliably translate to LinkedIn.
3. Add Your Media: Upload your image, video, or a PDF document to create a carousel post. Paste your link into the designated field.
4. Review the Live Preview: As you create, a preview pane on the side of your screen will update in real-time. This isn't just a mock-up, it's a faithful rendering of how your post will look on LinkedIn. You’ll see exactly how your text is spaced, how the image is cropped, and what the link preview card looks like - all in one place.

This method gives you complete control and peace of mind. What you see in the preview is what your audience will see in their feed. You can adjust your image crop, tweak your headline, or rephrase your copy until everything looks perfect, and only then do you schedule or publish it.

Common LinkedIn Preview Fails and How to Fix Them

Knowing is half the battle. Here are some of the most frequent preview-related issues people run into and how to handle them.

Fail #1: The Link Preview is Wrong

• The Problem: You paste a link to your latest blog post, but the preview shows your company's old logo and a generic title.
• The Fix: Run the URL through the Post Inspector. Tell your web developer that the og:image and og:title tags for that page need to be updated. Once fixed, run it through the Inspector again to refresh LinkedIn’s cache. This forces LinkedIn to fetch the new, correct information.

Fail #2: The Text Formatting Looks Messy

• The Problem: You copied text from a Word doc, and now it has random spacing and your bullet points are gone.
• The Fix: Avoid copying and pasting from rich-text editors like Google Docs or Word directly into LinkedIn. It often brings over hidden formatting code. Instead, write directly in the LinkedIn composer or, even better, in a social media scheduler that offers clean, native formatting options. For consistency, use the platform's native tools for bold and lists.

Fail #3: The Image is Terribly Cropped

• The Problem: Your stunning team photo that looks great on your computer is now awkwardly zoomed in, cutting half the people out of the shot.
• The Fix: LinkedIn favors certain aspect ratios. Square (1:1) and vertical (4:5) images tend to perform best and get more screen real estate. Before uploading, crop your image to these dimensions. Using a scheduler with a visual preview makes this a breeze - you can see the crop immediately and make adjustments before it ever goes public.

Fail #4: Your Document/Carousel is Blurry

• The Problem: You uploaded a PDF to create a carousel, but the text looks soft and the first page - your "cover" - is unreadable.
• The Fix: Export your PDF in the highest resolution possible. For best results, design your slides with LinkedIn in mind, using a vertical format like 1080x1350 pixels. Make sure the text is large, bold, and easy to read even on a small phone screen. A preview helps you confirm that your title slide grabs attention immediately.

Final Thoughts

Previewing your LinkedIn post isn't just an extra, optional step - it's an essential checkpoint that protects your brand integrity and improves your content's performance. By using tools like the native Post Inspector for checking link previews and relying on a scheduler for a complete, all-in-one visual check, you can remove the anxiety from hitting "publish" and know that your content always looks its best.

We built Postbase to solve this exact problem and end the publish-and-pray cycle for good. Our composer gives you a pixel-perfect, live preview of your LinkedIn posts, showing you exactly how your content - from text formatting and carousels to link previews - will appear in the feed before it goes live. This focus on a clean, reliable workflow means you can spend less time fixing mistakes and more time creating content that connects.