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Getting Started

1. Install and activate​

  1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/ or install via Plugins -> Add New in your WordPress admin.
  2. Activate the plugin via the Plugins menu.

The plugin adds an OG Images menu to your WordPress admin, with a Dashboard and a Settings page. Screenshots run on the PlugUpp screenshot server in the background, so nothing slows your site down. The free plan covers Posts, Pages and your homepage.

On first activation, a PlugUpp registration dialog may appear.

The PlugUpp registration dialog

2. Finish the setup row​

Open OG Images. Until the plugin is working, the Dashboard opens with a row of three steps. Each step ticks itself off when it is done, and the whole row goes away once your first image exists.

The setup row on the OG Images Dashboard

  1. Connect PlugUpp. Free, email only, no payment details. Click Activate now, then the confirmation link PlugUpp emails you. This step says "Outside WordPress" because the email is the one part that happens elsewhere. If the email has not arrived yet, the step says "Check your email to finish", and Refresh brings you back once you have clicked the link.
  2. Choose what gets a screenshot. Pick what Posts and Pages share as their image, right in the step, and click Save. Everything else has a working default.
  3. See your first image. The step names your most recent published post. If it uses a screenshot, click Take it now. That uses one screenshot from your allowance, and the step shows Queued, Capturing, then Ready with a small preview, usually within a minute. If it uses its featured image, click View the post to open it on your site once, and its share image is ready. Either way the step ticks itself off on the Dashboard, with no reload.

A fresh install starts with Posts and Pages on Off, so the plugin does not use any of your screenshot allowance until you choose. Each row in step 2 has five buttons:

  • Auto-screenshot - the plugin captures a real browser screenshot of each page and uses it as the og:image.
  • Featured image - emit the post's Featured Image as the og:image. Emits nothing when no Featured Image is set. Does not use your screenshot allowance.
  • Featured or screenshot - emit the post's Featured Image when one is set, and a screenshot when it is not. Screenshots are captured only for posts without a Featured Image.
  • Custom image - emit an image you pick per post from the block editor sidebar. Does not use your screenshot allowance.
  • Off - the plugin steps out of the og:image chain for this content type. Your SEO plugin's default takes over.

Individual posts can override the content-type default from the block editor sidebar - see Per-post controls.

3. Watch it on the Dashboard​

Once the row has gone, the OG Images > Dashboard gives you an at-a-glance view of your capture activity: your screenshot allowance, the screenshot server's status, how many screenshots are cached, how many are pending or failed, and when the last one was captured, followed by a table of recent activity. Pages still waiting on a capture, and any that failed with the reason, are listed here. The Regenerate All Screenshots button queues a fresh capture for every enabled page and post.

The OG Images Dashboard

4. Fine-tune in Settings​

OG Images > Settings opens on the same Image source choice, then Site-wide pages (your homepage, and on Premium your archives) and the Fallback image. Refresh, Screenshot capture, Prepare the page before capture and Output are folded under their headings, because their defaults work for most sites. Click a heading to open it. See Screenshot settings for every setting.

The OG Images settings page

Only the public address of each page and the capture settings go to the PlugUpp screenshot server. The image comes back to your site and is stored in your uploads folder.

Verifying OG image in your page source​

To confirm the plugin is working, view the source of a published page and search for og:image. For an Auto-screenshot source, you should see a URL pointing to your site's uploads folder (/wp-content/uploads/dynamic-og-images/). For a Featured-image or Custom-image source, you should see a URL pointing to the chosen attachment.

You can also use the Facebook Sharing Debugger to preview how your page will appear when shared. X (formerly Twitter) no longer offers a dedicated card validator; X will preview the card automatically when you draft a post linking to your page.

Next steps​

  • Screenshot settings - configure Image Source per content type, viewport, capture delay, and blocking options
  • Per-post controls - override the Image Source for individual pages, and (Premium) per-page capture overrides
  • Cache management - refresh, clear, and manage your screenshot cache, including the cache-flip orphan sweep
  • SEO plugin compatibility - how the plugin works alongside Yoast, Rank Math, and AIOSEO