Last updated December 6th, 2023 00:30
You may have noticed that the Facebook app has started using its own internal web page browser. This means that every time you click on a link in the app, the page is displayed in Facebook’s internal browser, within the Facebook app, instead of in the default browser like Chrome or Firefox. This can be a reason why is the website not displaying correctly on Facebook. Let’s take a look at why this happens and how to fix it.
Why is the website not displaying correctly on Facebook?
First, let’s talk about the problem and what it looks like. Usually, you encounter problems with displaying graphics. In short, graphics are displayed correctly in the classic browser, but not in Facebook’s internal browser. They simply don’t appear. Images or other graphical components of the website are not displayed. The poorly written code of the website is to blame. To be more precise, it’s mixed content of the website.
Remove mixed content
The problem arises when the entire website operates under the HTTPS protocol, but some parts of it are listed as HTTP. These are often the paths to images. Facebook has a significant problem with this and deals with it by simply not displaying anything that has an HTTP path.
This brings us to the crux of the problem. As long as you have mixed content on your website, and therefore technically incorrect source code, you won’t solve the problem. You’ll have to find all the URLs in the code that start with HTTP and modify them.
How can I fix the issue if I use the WordPress CMS?
If you have a website built on the WordPress content management system, you have two options for fixing the problem of mixed content. You can either modify the MySQL database or use a plugin. If you are not familiar with handling databases, you can simply install and activate the Really Simple SSL plugin. This plugin basically takes the source code provided by the server and modifies it before it is sent to the user’s browser. It finds all instances of HTTP addresses and replaces them with HTTPS. From the perspective of the web browser, there will be no mixed content because the plugin modifies the output to ensure that there is no HTTP in it.
If you are familiar with the MySQL database and the phpMyAdmin tool, you can modify the entire content of your content management system instead of using the plugin. In short, you make a backup and open it in a text editor such as PSPAD. Using the “replace” function, you modify all HTTP to HTTPS and save the SQL file. You then overwrite the content of the database with this modified SQL file. This way, you can hard-code HTTPS into the source code without needing the plugin to handle this issue.
Why is the website not displaying correctly on Facebook? Conclusion.
Mixed content can be a problem for many beginner website creators, and it is not always easy to identify such a problem. It is therefore better to avoid mixed content from the beginning. If you would like to know more about fixing mixed content, you can look here.
The problem with HTTPS and mixed content
Migrating WordPress from a subdomain to a domain
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