Clearing Cache for the Facebook Share Plugin
If you use the facebook share button on your website or blog, chances are you’ve noticed that it doesn’t immediately reflect changes you make to a page or entry.
Example: You write an article and hit publish, then share. Later, you notice you either forgot to add meta tags such as description or page title (or if you’re using the Open Graph (op) tags in your header) and want to update it so that the new information can began filtering through the millions of members on facebook, starting with the next person to hit ‘share’.
Info in the “Description” tag shows up in the green highlighted area on fb share
So you’ve written this really cool new description (or finally remembering to add one at all) and as soon as it’s saved, you proceed to share. The little share window pops up and you’re expecting to see the new information, but notice that nothing has changed. You probably even clear the cache in your own browser and try again. Didn’t help, did it?
That’s because facebook will cache pages once they’ve been shared. I’ve read on some forums where people state it took a couple of weeks for it to clear on it’s (fb’s) own, others said it was only a matter of a day or two. Still, what if you have something really important to announce and can’t wait even a day or two? (Example: you initially made an error in a sale price of an item, or there are spelling or grammar typos in it. You don’t want to look or seem unprofessional and aside from changing the file name of the page (which could throw off bookmarks and links other people have for it), you have tried everything else?
There is a quick and easy solution that will clear the cache and have your new description posting in a matter of minutes. It’s called the ‘debugger’ and is actually used to check and debug pages that use Open Graph Protocol but it works great to clear any page with a fb share button or link on it.
Clear Cache from the Share Plugin with the facebook Debugger
Simply type in the url of the page you wish to clear from facebook’s cache and click ‘Debug”. Not only will this clear the old description from your share plugin, but if you’re using Open Graph on the page, it checks for inaccuracies and also makes suggestions on what you can do to improve it’s performance.
If you’re going to be updating several pages, you might want to bookmark the facebook debugger for later!
~Sherma
I hope this helps a few, leave a comment if you have questions!
(please remember to share! :)
