How to Share a Link on Facebook

Sharing a link on Facebook seems straightforward, but truly capturing attention and earning that click requires more than just a copy-and-paste. This guide will walk you through the basic steps of a great-looking link share and, more importantly, the proven strategies that turn a simple link into a powerful piece of content that your audience will actually engage with.

The Basics: How to Share a Link on Your Facebook Profile or Page

Let's start with the fundamental steps. Whether you’re posting to your personal profile, a business Page, or a Group you manage, the core mechanics are the same. Mastering this ensures your links always look clean and professional.

Step-by-Step Guide for a Clean Link Share:

1. Find the content creation box. Go to the profile, Page, or Group where you want to post. You’ll see the composer box, usually asking "What's on your mind?" for profiles or "Create post..." for Pages.
2. Paste your URL. Copy the full link from the website you want to share and paste it directly into the composer box.
3. Wait for the link preview to generate. This is the most important part. Facebook will take a few seconds to fetch information from the link and create a clickable visual preview. This preview typically includes an image, a title (headline), and a short description. Don't rush and hit 'Post' before this appears!
4. Clean up your caption. Once the preview card has loaded, you can safely delete the raw URL from your text. The preview card is already clickable, so leaving the long, clunky link in your caption just adds visual clutter. Removing it makes your post look much cleaner.
5. Write compelling copy. This is your moment to shine. Add your own commentary, ask a question, or provide context that tells people why they should click the link.
6. Tag relevant people or pages. If your link references another creator, business, or publication, tag them using the "@" symbol. This notifies them of the share and can increase the post's visibility.
7. Post it. Once you're happy with your caption and the preview looks good, click the "Post" button.

Beyond the Basics: Customizing Your Link Preview for Maximum Impact

That link preview card is your link’s first impression - its little billboard advertisement in the feed. A blurry image or a truncated headline can kill your click-through rate. While you can’t directly edit the preview on Facebook anymore (a change made to combat misinformation), you still have control if you own the website.

The Real Source of the Preview: Open Graph (OG) Tags

When you paste a link, Facebook scours the page’s code for special instructions called Open Graph (OG) tags. These tags tell social platforms exactly what image, title, and description to use for the preview. The three main ones you need to know about are:

• og:title: This sets the headline that appears in the preview card.
• og:image: This specifies the URL of the image to be displayed. For Facebook, the ideal image size is 1200 x 630 pixels.
• og:description: This provides the little summary text that appears under the title.

How to Control Your OG Tags

If you're sharing links to your own website or blog, getting your OG tags right is a non-negotiable part of your content-publishing process. The good news is, you don't need to be a developer to do it.

If you use a platform like WordPress, an SEO plugin is your best friend. A tool like Yoast SEO or Rank Math adds a simple section to your post editor where you can manually define the exact title, description, and image you want Facebook (and other social platforms) to use. This gives you complete creative control, allowing you to optimize headlines and choose eye-catching images specifically for social sharing.

Troubleshooting with the Facebook Sharing Debugger

Have you ever updated an article's featured image, but Facebook keeps showing the old one? This happens because Facebook caches, or saves, link data to keep things running fast. You just need to tell it to look again.

Meet the Facebook Sharing Debugger. This free developer tool is incredibly useful for marketers and creators. Here’s how you use it:

1. Go to the Facebook for Developers Debugger website.
2. Paste the URL you want to check into the search bar.
3. Click "Debug."

The tool will show you exactly what information Facebook sees and flag any errors, like a missing `og:image` tag. Most importantly, it has a "Scrape Again" button. If you've just updated your OG tags on your website, clicking this button forces Facebook to clear its cache and fetch the newest information. It’s an essential final check before you share an important link.

Turning a Simple Link into Engaging Content: Strategies from the Pros

Posting the link correctly is the technical half of the battle. The creative half is making people actually want to click. A link on its own is sterile, it’s your caption and presentation that infuse it with personality and drive action.

1. Tell a Story, Don't Just Announce It

The absolute worst way to share a link is with a caption like, "Check out our new blog post." People scrolling through their feed are looking to be entertained or informed, not assigned homework. Instead of announcing the link, treat your caption as the first paragraph of a story.

Instead of: "Read our guide to Facebook marketing."

Try: "We spent three weeks running tests on what works *right now* on Facebook. One of our surprising finds was how much the first sentence of a post can impact reach. Here's a full breakdown of that and four other key lessons."

The second option creates curiosity and offers a proven benefit, motivating the click. You're not just sharing a link, you're sharing a discovery.

2. Ask a Question to Ignite Conversation

The Facebook algorithm rewards engagement, especially comments. A simple way to get comments is to ask a question related to your link. It invites your audience into a conversation rather than just broadcasting at them.

Example: "We just put together a list of the top 5 tools for social video creation. Which one have you had the best experience with, or is an essential tool missing from our list?"

This approach drives clicks to the article while simultaneously generating comments, which tells Facebook that your content is valuable and worth showing to more people.

3. Ditch the Preview Entirely (And Use a Photo or Video Post)

This strategy can be a game-changer. Both native images and, especially, native videos tend to perform better in the Facebook algorithm than standard link posts. So why not leverage that?

1. Create a strong visual related to your content: a beautiful photo, an infographic, a short video testimonial, or a text-on-screen Reel.
2. Upload this media directly to Facebook.
3. Write your engaging caption (as described above).
4. Place the URL directly into your caption text.

With this method, you won't get a clickable preview card. Instead, your attention-grabbing visuals will stop the scroll, and your clear call to action in the caption - like "You can read the full guide at the link in this post! 👇" - directs the click. It requires a stronger visual and caption but can pay off big in terms of reach.

4. Share Links Through Facebook Stories

Don't sleep on Facebook Stories! The in-app format is fun, interactive, and has a dedicated feature for sharing links: the Link Sticker. Instead of just posting the link to your feed, create a simple Story. This could be a graphic pointing to the link or a quick selfie video where you explain what the article is about. Then, add the Link Sticker, and your followers can tap straight through to your website.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Sharing Links on Facebook

Knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do. Avoid these common pitfalls.

• Using Link Shorteners: Services like bit.ly can feel clean, but they obscure the final destination. This hurts trust, as users can't see where they're being sent. On top of that, Facebook often prefers full, transparent URLs and may even view heavily-shortened links with suspicion, which can potentially reduce your post's reach.
• Forgetting a Call-to-Action (CTA): Never assume people know what you want them to do. Tell them directly! Use clear, action-oriented language. Don't just say, "Here is an article." Instead, say, "Click here for the full breakdown," "Download the free template," or "Learn more in our guide."
• Only Sharing Your Own Links: Social media is a two-way street. If your feed is nothing but a wall of your own content, it feels overly promotional. Practice the 80/20 rule: 80% of your content should provide value to your audience (this can include helpful articles from others), and 20% can be promotional. Sharing useful content from other sources builds trust and positions you as a valuable resource in your niche.

Final Thoughts

Sharing a link on Facebook that successfully gets clicks involves much more than just the act of posting. Success comes from preparing a compelling visual preview with the right Open Graph tags, writing a caption that tells a story or sparks a conversation, and choosing the format that best fits your content, whether it's a standard post, a video, or a Story.

As social media professionals, we know that getting this right consistently requires strong organization. We created Postbase with a visual content calendar at its core for this exact reason. Being able to see all your scheduled links, videos, and images in one place makes it easy to balance your different content types and build a thoughtful strategy instead of just posting whenever you remember. Planning ahead is the key to turning random links into a real content engine.