The so-called duplicate image problem often happens to new CyberSEO users when the same image is displayed twice in a post. Why does this happen? Is it a bug in the CyberSEO plugin and how can it be fixed?
First of all, let me be clear: this is not a bug, but a documented feature. The duplicate image problem occurs when your WordPress theme displays a post that has a featured image created by CyberSEO from a post image. It can be a first, a last or a random one, depending on the settings of the Post thumbnails option.
When CyberSEO syndicates a new post, it generates a featured image from its HTML content. So the main thing to keep in mind is that the featured image doesn’t come out of the blue. If the featured image was generated, it exists somewhere in the body of the post, or it’s attached to the post as an RSS enclosure, which can also be pasted into the post. This way, the original image is visible as part of the post.
The CyberSEO plugin only generates a post and adds it to the WordPress database, but doesn’t display it in the browser. Your WordPress theme is fully responsible for that. So if it’s designed to show a featured image above the post content, it will show you the same image twice – once as a post thumbnail and again as part of the original post.
Many popular WordPress themes have special switches to enable or disable the visibility of featured images in a single post. For example, this is how this option looks in the Themify Pinboard theme:
When the Hide Featured Image option is enabled, all individual posts will be displayed with their own embedded images, but without the post thumbnails at the top. On the other hand, those post thumbnails will still be displayed on the main index page of your site.
Now you may ask: “ok, but what do I do if there is no special option to hide featured images in my theme? In that case you have 3 solutions:
- Make a child theme for your WordPress theme and manually edit it (usually it’s a
the_post_thumbnailorget_the_post_thumbnailfunction call in the “single.php” file). - Use a special post images option which allows you to hide the first post image or post thumbnail. For example, you may want to hide the first post image but keep a featured one in all posts shown at the index page.
- Use 3rd-party plugins like FIFU. There is a “Hide Featured Media” option on the “Featured image” tab. Set it to hide post thumbnails in all your single posts and pages, but keep them visible on home index.
As you can see, there are at least 3 ways to fix the duplicate image problem. Just choose the one that best suits your needs.