A featured image represents the contents, mood, or theme of a post or page and is used throughout your site. This guide will show you how to work with featured images on your website.
In this guide
To set a featured image on a post or page, follow these steps:
- Visit your dashboard.
- Click on Pages or Posts from the options on the left.
- Click on the title of the page or post to open the editor.
- Locate the “Summary” section at the top of the settings sidebar. If you do not see the settings sidebar, you may need to click on the settings icon in the top right corner, as shown in the image on the right.
- Click on the “Set Featured Image” box which appears if an image is not already present.
- Choose an image from one of four options:
- Media Library (click “Add new” here to upload a new image.)
- Google Photos.
- Pexels Free Photos.
- Openverse.
- Click the “Publish,” “Update,” or “Save” button to save your featured image.
To change or remove a featured image, follow steps 1 to 4 in the previous section to locate the featured image. Then, click the “Replace” or “Remove” button:
Featured images are used in many different ways by themes. Here are some examples of places where featured images may appear, depending on your theme:
- Search results
- Blog Page
- Portfolio Page
- Featured Content on the homepage:
If a featured image is not appearing, check your theme settings to ensure the theme is set up to display featured images. The setup can vary depending on the type of theme your site uses:
- Block Themes: Use the Featured Image block in your template.
- Universal, Hybrid and Classic Themes: Check the Customizer for Content Options or a similar section. Your theme may have a setting here to show or hide the featured image in certain areas.
- Third-Party Themes: Check your theme documentation for details.
If your featured image is the wrong size, please see your theme’s documentation for recommended dimensions to use. Certain themes use featured images in ways that may require a specifically sized image to work correctly. Visit our Optimize Your Images guide for more.
Social media sites like Facebook will often use the page’s featured image when you share it on social media. Here are examples from Facebook and LinkedIn:
You can check the following guides for help with how images appear on Facebook and LinkedIn.
