Switching from Yoast to WPSSO > missing field ‘image’

WPSSO uses image sizes, but Yoast SEO does not – it simply uses the original image, which may be too small or the wrong aspect ratio. Google actually wants 3 different image sizes (with different aspect ratios) for each image.

You should not upload images of a specific size – you should upload the largest image you can and let WordPress create various sizes from that image as it needs them. See https://wpsso.com/docs/plugins/wpsso/faqs/why-shouldnt-i-upload-small-images-to-the-media-library/ for more info.

If WPSSO is unable to find or create an image for a post/page when saving that post/page, it will show one or more warnings in the SSO notification area. The first image warning will include additional suggestions on different ways to provide WPSSO with larger images.

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Hi, thanks for getting back to me

You’re welcome. 🙂

Assuming the default image is larger than 1200x1200px, and WPSSO could not find any images for the intended purpose (ie. Open Graph meta tags, or Schema markup, etc.), then it would use the default image, if the default image is large enough.

Using a thumbnail on a white background would have a negative impact on your click through rate. The best and suggested solution is to upload images to your media library that are larger than 1200x1200px. When uploading images to the media library, WP will recommend the minimum dimension required to satisfy all image sizes – you should aim to upload images of those dimensions or larger.

If your variations do not have images, and since variations are children of the main product, you may want to enable the SSO > Advanced > Plugin Settings > Integration > Inherit Featured Image and Inherit Custom Images options, although that is a premium feature.

When editing a post/page, see the SSO notification area for any image related warnings, and suggested solutions.

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1200x1200px is only 600px on a high resolution display, which is most modern phones and laptops. See here for more info: https://wpsso.com/docs/plugins/wpsso/faqs/why-shouldnt-i-upload-small-images-to-the-media-library/

The Image Dimension Checks option is disabled in the Standard edition, so that feature would not apply in this case. The Upscale Media Library Images option is also unchecked in the Standard edition, so would not be available in this case either. Both options have help text available – let me know if the help text is unclear and I can look to improve it (we like options to have complete and useful help text).

My suggestion would be to make sure the images you upload satisfy all required image size dimensions. In the case of WPSSO, by default that means at least 1200px in both width and height for Google’s 1:1 image requirement.

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If your images are too small, enabling the “Image Dimension Checks” option would not help – it enables a verification of the image dimensions that WP returns, which can be smaller than requested. Perhaps the help text could be improved:

Users often upload small featured images to the Media Library, without knowing that WordPress creates different image sizes from uploaded images. Providing social sites and search engines with correctly resized images is highly recommended, so this option should be enabled if possible. This option can be disabled to use smaller images and avoid some rejected image warnings. See Why shouldn’t I upload small images to the media library? for more information on WordPress and its image sizes.

The “Upscale Media Library Images” option could certainly help as it is designed to create larger images from smaller originals, but there is a cost – upscaling generally makes images look worse, even if they are larger. The help text for that option is:

WordPress does not upscale (enlarge) images – WordPress can only create smaller images from larger full size originals. Upscaled images do not look as sharp or clear, and if upscaled too much, will look fuzzy and unappealing – not something you want to promote on social and search sites. WPSSO Core Premium includes an optional module to allow upscaling of WordPress Media Library images (up to a maximum upscale percentage). Do not enable this option unless you want to publish lower quality images on social and search sites.

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