Skip to main content

Capacity planning for high-page-count sites

Dynamic OG Image Generator's monthly screenshot allowances are sized for sites up to roughly 1,000 pages of fresh captures per month at the default 30-day refresh interval. Bigger sites - especially those built with programmatic-SEO tools like Page Generator Pro, large WooCommerce stores, or property listing sites - need a few adjustments to stay within their quota.

This page covers the arithmetic, the levers you can pull, and the typical patterns for the four common high-page-count scenarios.

The arithmetic​

The screenshots a site needs per month is straightforward:

pages in scope × (30 / refresh_interval) = monthly screenshots needed

A few worked examples:

  • 100 pages, default 30-day refresh -> 100 screenshots/month. Comfortably inside every plan.
  • 1,000 pages, default 30-day refresh -> 1,000 screenshots/month. At the Agency-tier ceiling.
  • 500 pages, 7-day refresh -> 2,143 screenshots/month. Outside every plan.
  • 3,000 pages, default 30-day refresh -> 3,000 screenshots/month. Far outside every plan; selective coverage is the only honest answer here.

The math is fixed. No queueing strategy fixes it. The plans are sized to a specific shape of customer; sites past that shape need explicit choices about which pages get captured. The good news: as of 2.4.0, "selective coverage" no longer means "disabled" - posts whose Image Source is Featured / Custom / Off still emit a perfectly good og:image (just one that doesn't burn quota).

The levers​

Four knobs you can turn, in order of impact:

1. Set the content-type Image Source to Featured (or Off)​

The Image Source dropdown on OG Images > Settings lets you pick a default source per content type:

  • Featured image - emit the post's Featured Image as the og:image. Zero quota. Falls back to no og:image when no Featured Image is set.
  • Featured image (with screenshot when missing) - emit the Featured Image when one is set, fall back to an auto-screenshot when it is not. Quota is consumed only for posts without a Featured Image.
  • Off - DOIG steps out of the og:image chain for this content type. Your SEO plugin's default takes over.

On Premium, the same per-content-type Source dropdown exists for any public custom post type (WooCommerce products, programmatically-generated pages, listings).

Most high-page-count sites have one or two content types that DO need screenshots (your hand-curated blog posts, your service pages) and one or two that DON'T (programmatically-generated landing pages, product variations, archive pages). Set the high-volume types to Featured or Off and they stop counting toward your quota immediately.

2. Extend the refresh interval​

The default 30-day refresh interval means each Auto-screenshot page is regenerated monthly to catch design changes. If your pages change less frequently than that, extending the interval to 60 or 90 days cuts your quota usage proportionally.

The "Refresh interval (days)" setting lives in OG Images > Settings. Custom values are accepted.

3. Per-post Image Source overrides​

The OG Image panel in the block editor lets you set the Image Source for any individual post, overriding the content-type default. Pick Auto-screenshot for the handful of pages on a Featured-image-by-default content type that genuinely need a screenshot, or pick Featured image / Off for individual exceptions on an Auto-screenshot content type.

4. Bulk Image Source actions​

The Bulk actions dropdown on the Posts / Pages list screens has five DOIG-specific entries:

  • OG image: Auto-screenshot
  • OG image: Featured image
  • OG image: Featured image (with screenshot when missing)
  • OG image: Off
  • OG image: Reset to default

Select any number of rows - including the full set produced by a built-in or third-party list filter, such as a category, tag, or Page Generator Pro's filter - and apply the action across all of them in one click. Drives the same per-post override the OG Image panel in the block editor writes to, so the two stay in sync.

Custom image is intentionally not on the bulk list because each post needs its own attachment chosen from the Media Library; pick Custom from the sidebar instead.

Common scenarios​

Page Generator Pro​

PGP generates large catalogues of pages programmatically. By default these land as post or page items and count toward your quota along with your hand-written content (when the Image Source is Auto-screenshot).

Recommendation (on Premium): register PGP-generated content under a custom post type (PGP supports this in its settings) and set that CPT's Image Source to Featured image or Off under OG Images > Settings > Custom post types. Your hand-written Posts and Pages continue to get screenshots; the PGP content uses its Featured Image (or your SEO plugin's default) instead.

Free-tier alternative: leave everything on page / post, but use the bulk OG image: Featured image action on the Posts list screen filtered by the PGP-specific category or tag.

WooCommerce with many products​

Product pages usually have great featured images (the product's hero shot). For most stores, you DON'T need DOIG-generated screenshots of product pages - the featured image is already what you want as the og:image.

Recommendation (on Premium): set the WooCommerce product CPT's Image Source to Featured image under OG Images > Settings > Custom post types. Your normal Pages and Posts continue to be captured; products emit their Featured Image as og:image directly, no quota consumed.

Property listing sites​

Listing sites often have hundreds-to-thousands of listing pages. The arithmetic typically lands far outside any plan even with the Agency-tier 1,000-screenshot allowance.

Recommendation: set the listing CPT's Image Source to Featured image (if your listings have hero images) or Off (if they don't and you'd rather have your SEO plugin's default fall through). For the rare listings where the auto-screenshot is genuinely better, set the per-post Image Source to Auto-screenshot from the block editor sidebar.

Multi-language or multi-region sites​

A site with 200 pages in 5 languages has 1,000 pages from DOIG's perspective. The math holds.

Recommendation: capture the primary language only via the per-content-type Source, or narrow to a subset using bulk Image Source actions filtered by the language taxonomy.

What about the cached screenshots from before I switched the Source?​

When you switch a content type (or individual post) from Auto-screenshot to Featured / Custom / Off, the existing cached WebP files are kept for a 14-day grace period in case you change your mind. Switch back inside that window and the cache is preserved with no quota burn for re-capture. After 14 days a weekly background sweep cleans up the orphaned files automatically.

This means it's safe to experiment with the Image Source dropdowns - you don't have to commit to a decision permanently.

What's coming​

Future releases may add advanced exclusion rules (category / tag exclusion, parent-page exclusion, meta-key skip rules, and a doig_should_capture developer filter) for sites where the per-content-type and per-post levers above aren't fine-grained enough.

If your site doesn't fit any of the scenarios above, our support team is happy to help you work out the right approach.