How to Use LinkedIn Post Inspector and Fix Broken Link Previews 

Whenever you add a link to a LinkedIn post, you don’t expect a random URL — you expect a preview. The title gives context, the image stops the scroll, and the description sets expectations. 

Perfect!

However, it doesn’t always go smoothly: you drop your link like usual — and instead of a clean preview, you get a string of random characters: no image, no title, just a cold robotic URL.

That alone can cut your LinkedIn engagement in half, just because social selling is booming in 2026, and people decide with their eyes before they ever click. 

The LinkedIn Post Inspector tool helps fix multiple preview issues right before you publish, so reach losses can be forgotten forever. 

Find out what the LinkedIn Post Inspector is, how it works. Also, find out how to use LinkedIn Post Inspector to get your links displayed properly — cleaner previews, more attention, comments, and networking opportunities.

What Is a Post Inspector for LinkedIn?

LinkedIn Post Inspector is an official, free tool from LinkedIn that lets you see how the links you intend to share will appear. It scans the content available at the target URL, reads its attributes, and produces a live preview of your post.

💡Pro-tip! Typically, it pulls and shows the following elements — all of which you can tweak:

•  👉Cover image (the preview thumbnail);
•  👉Post title/headline;
•  👉Metadata (description and page details).

Why Use a LinkedIn Post Inspector?

The LinkedIn Post Inspector helps you ensure your shared links render correctly before you publish your post on LinkedIn. 

Here’s a list of typical bugs the LinkedIn Post Inspector official tool helps prevent:

• A title that doesn’t match the page headline;
• A wrong image appears with your post;
• An old cached description;
• A preview that doesn’t update after you make changes.

How Does LinkedIn Post Inspector Work?

First, the tool crawls your page like LinkedIn’s bot does, sending a request to the target URL and downloading the content.

Next, it scans the Open Graph metadata available at the link. 

💡Pro-tip! Open Graph (often abbreviated as OG) is a set of HTML tags placed in a webpage’s header. LinkedIn uses these details to feature the correct title, description, and image.

The most important OG metadata includes:

• og:title – The headline shown in the preview.
• og:description – The summary below the title.
• og:image – The featured visual.
• og:url – The canonical page URL.

After reading these tags, the debugging tool illustrates exactly how LinkedIn sees your post, presenting a rendered preview panel with the title, description, and image that will be used.

Plus, it provides all the info on the metadata gathered from the post link.

Finally, the post inspector tool can clear LinkedIn’s cached version, if possible. 

Running a fresh inspection requests LinkedIn to discard its stored data for that URL and fetch it anew, generating an updated link preview.

💡Pro-tip! Run the LinkedIn Post Inspector tool immediately after publishing metadata changes, not days later. This reduces cache conflicts.

What LinkedIn Post Inspector Can’t Do

The LinkedIn Post Inspector is a debugging feature, not a fix, meaning it only reports what LinkedIn CAN read at the time of analysis. 

Resolving all the detected issues is your responsibility.

Here’s what Linkedin Post Inspector tool won’t be able to do for you: 

• 👉Change your page content;
• 👉Fix missing Open Graph tags;
• 👉Override LinkedIn’s algorithm;
• 👉Guarantee immediate preview updates;
• 👉Modify your website’s code or metadata;
• 👉Bypass server-side issues.

💡Pro-tip! If inspection results change between runs, your server may be serving dynamic metadata — one that changes automatically depending on the page, user, or content. Stabilize the OG output first.

How to Use LinkedIn Post Inspector

Using LinkedIn Post Inspector is easier than posting on LinkedIn itself. However, you must be logged into your current  LinkedIn account for you to access your link preview fast. 

Follow these steps:

1. Find the LinkedIn Post Inspector official tool at https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/

2. Enter the full URL you want to analyze, including https:// protocol. 
3. Click on the Inspect button to start the check.
4. Review the output – title, image, and description.

💡Pro-tip! Is the LinkedIn Post Inspector not working for your URL? You’re not alone! 

Many users see the LinkedIn Post Inspector internal connector error. In the majority of cases, it occurs when LinkedIn’s crawler fails to connect with your server. 

The network uses a self-operated system called a crawler (sometimes referred to as a bot) to access your URL and read its metadata. When it fails to connect to your server, the inspection doesn’t go through. 

This usually happens for one of the following reasons:

• Your firewall or CDN (a security or content delivery service that filters traffic) is blocking LinkedIn’s crawler.
• Your server is running slowly.
• The URL isn’t sending back the usual “200 OK” response, which usually shows that the page has loaded successfully.
• Your SSL certificate, which secures your site with HTTPS, isn’t configured correctly or has an error.

Try allowing LinkedIn’s crawler through your firewall or CDN settings to address the problem. Also, check whether your page loads quickly, uses valid HTTPS, and returns a successful “200 OK” status.

It is a good idea to maintain a record of the URLs you ran through the inspection tool and the date and time of each scan. You can store this in a spreadsheet as part of your LinkedIn Post Inspector documentation.

This log can help you track when URLs were refreshed and whether LinkedIn is still showing an outdated stored copy. If the same hiccup emerges over and over, you can check against timestamps to figure out if the glitch is related to caching or server lag.

Debug Post Performance Issues

Preview problems often explain weak post-performance. You can use the inspector’s output to diagnose specific preview issues. The details panel will indicate the root cause.

Below are the most common issues and how inspection helps resolve them.

1. Outdated Preview

LinkedIn may show an older title or description even after a page update. The reason? LinkedIn caches link data, which is why the inspector may reveal if the platform is still using the cached version. 

2. Preview Image Problems

The LinkedIn Post Inspector tool may show a warning like “Image not available” or display a default visual. In many instances, it happens when the og:image URL is faulty, too large, or in an unsupported format. Plus, graphics below 1200 x 627 pixels often render poorly.

The details panel will show the specific image URL it tried to fetch. If the wrong image appears, the issue is almost always in your metadata.

3. Incorrect Metadata

Incorrect titles or descriptions usually point to misconfigured Open Graph tags on your webpage. This often indicates that the OG tags are either missing, incorrectly formatted, or contain the wrong values. The inspector’s “Details” tab will list the exact tags it reads.

💡Pro-tip! If multiple CMS plugins manage metadata, disable the duplicates. Conflicts are a common root cause.

Refresh Link Preview

Sometimes the metadata is correct, but LinkedIn refuses to update the preview. The LinkedIn Post Inspector clear cache function helps force LinkedIn’s servers to re-crawl the page. 

Simply enter your URL into the LinkedIn Post Inspector official tool and click “Inspect” to trigger cache clearance. When successful, the LinkedIn Post Inspector refresh link preview process will replace outdated data with the latest metadata.

Manage Open Graph Tags

LinkedIn relies heavily on Open Graph metadata. The LinkedIn Post Inspector Open Graph view confirms whether these tags are present and readable.

Key tags to check include:

• og:title;
• og:description;
• og:image;
• og:url.

LinkedIn will fall back to defaults, often with poor results, if these tags are absent or redundant.

How to Improve Your LinkedIn Post Performance (Beyond LinkedIn Post Inspector)

While the LinkedIn Post Inspector official tool ensures proper presentation through technical correctness, it takes strategic distribution to achieve actual engagement.

Here’s how to improve the performance of your LinkedIn posts beyond using the inspector tool:

Target The Right Crowds Before Posting

Your posts initially reach primarily first-degree connections after publishing. But if you don’t have enough connections, your posts are less likely to gain attention and engagement. After all, engagement triggers algorithmic distribution beyond your first-degree contacts. 

So, how do you connect with more prospects so your posts can gain higher visibility? Manually connecting and engaging with LinkedIn users rarely scales.

💡Pro-tip! Try Dripify to build visibility and engagement ahead of time. 

Dripify LinkedIn automation tool lets you instantly connect and build rapport with target prospects on LinkedIn, even before your content goes live.

Find the right crowds directly in the Dripify app, then instantly view profiles, like, and engage with posts. This warms up relationships before outreach begins.

Convert attention into conversations using personalized connection requests, messages, InMails, and emails on autopilot — without manual effort. This way, you grow your audience and prime them to engage with your future content.

Optimize for the First 60–90 LinkedIn Algorithm

You want to trigger positive signals within the first 60-90 minutes after posting. 

Simply dropping a post doesn’t mean it will instantly reach your entire network. Instead, it will first be visible to a small group of your connections.

During the first 60–90 minutes, the LinkedIn algorithm measures how that group reacts to your post. It looks at actions such as clicks, comments, views, and how long people pause on the post. These early interactions act as quality signals.

If people are interacting with your content, the algorithm will start showing it to a broader audience. If engagement is weak, distribution slows down.

💡Pro-tip! Clear link previews and relevant content increase the likelihood of positive early signals. That early performance influences overall visibility.

To achieve that:

• Start your post with lines that can prompt a quick reaction, such as a reaction or a short comment. 
• Pose a direct question or state a surprising fact. 
• Use relevant hashtags for immediate categorization.
• Structure your post for quick consumption. Place key information in the first two lines. 
• Use line breaks and white space. This motivates users to stop scrolling and engage.

Increase Dwell Time, Not Just Likes

LinkedIn tracks how long users stay on your post because the algorithm values meaningful engagement. 

A “Like” on your post isn’t a strong enough signal. A comment or a full read of a linked article is stronger, so write posts that encourage thoughtful responses. 

When sharing a link, provide substantial context in the post itself. 

It is also a good idea to include actionable takeaways that readers will save for later reference. Numbered lists, templates, and checklists naturally encourage saving behavior.