First identify where the thumbnail appears: a social or messaging app’s link card, Google Search, or another surface. Each uses different signals. Then check whether the language is part of the image itself, what the public page and image URLs serve, and whether that surface can be told which localized image to use.
Identify the preview and reproduce the problem
Record the exact page URL, where the thumbnail appears, the intended language, and the language actually shown. A social link card and a Google Search image preview do not share one control mechanism: social cards can use page metadata, while Google selects image previews automatically.
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Check the image file itself. If words are baked into the image pixels, changing HTML language metadata will not translate them. Provide an image with the appropriate language, or use a language-neutral image when text is unnecessary.
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Check what an unauthenticated crawler can see
Inspect the public response for the affected URL, not only the page after scripts run or while you are logged in. Confirm that the canonical URL is the expected page and that its social metadata points to the image intended for that language. Also open the image URL without a session: it should resolve publicly to the correct asset, rather than being blocked, redirected, or replaced with a generic or wrong-language image.
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This check matters because metadata and crawler visibility can differ from what a person sees in a browser. Do not assume that a crawler receives the same language-adaptive response as an Indian visitor.
Fix social and messaging share cards with Open Graph metadata
The Open Graph Protocol defines og:image as the representative image URL and requires og:title, og:type, og:image, and og:url on a page. It also defines og:locale for the locale of the page’s tags and og:locale:alternate for other available locales. LinkedIn’s share-preview guidance lists og:title, og:image, og:description, and og:url. See the Open Graph Protocol and LinkedIn’s sharing guidance.
For each localized page, make the title, description, and image consistent with that page’s language. For example, the Hindi page should point to a Hindi image if the image contains language-specific text. Locale metadata describes the page’s locale; it does not turn text inside an image into another language.
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Example metadata for a localized page
Use the actual page URL, image URL, and locale for your implementation. This illustrative Hindi example uses hi_IN as the Open Graph locale value:
<meta property="og:title" content="हिंदी में पृष्ठ का शीर्षक">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/hi/page/">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/page-hi.jpg">
<meta property="og:description" content="हिंदी में पृष्ठ का विवरण">
<meta property="og:locale" content="hi_IN">
<meta property="og:locale:alternate" content="en_IN">Open Graph also supports image properties such as dimensions and alternative text. Add the appropriate properties when useful, and ensure the declared image is the asset you intend the preview to use.
Make language versions discoverable with distinct URLs
For multilingual sites, Google recommends a separate URL for each language version rather than relying on cookies or browser settings to change page content. Annotate equivalent pages with a complete, reciprocal hreflang set, including a reference to each page itself. Use a language code, optionally followed by a region code: a country code alone is not a language code.
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Google says it determines a page’s language from visible content; the HTML lang attribute and hreflang do not determine it by themselves. Those attributes help describe language relationships, but they cannot compensate for a page whose visible content or image is in the wrong language. Read Google’s guidance on managing multilingual and multi-regional sites.
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On each equivalent page, list all language alternatives, including its own URL. For two versions, the annotations would follow this pattern:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-IN" href="https://example.com/en-in/page/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="hi-IN" href="https://example.com/hi-in/page/">Use the appropriate language-region codes and keep the same complete set on both pages. The example URLs are illustrative; replace them with your actual equivalents.
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Avoid forcing a language based on a visitor guess
Do not rely on an IP address, cookie, or browser-language negotiation as the only way to expose localized pages. Google cautions against automatically redirecting visitors based on a presumed language and recommends visible links that let people choose another language.
Googlebot commonly requests pages without an Accept-Language header, and a crawler’s location is not a reliable stand-in for every user. A page that adapts only to a visitor’s settings may therefore show a crawler a different version from the one an Indian visitor receives. Keep language versions available at stable URLs and provide a clear language selector.
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For a LinkedIn preview, use LinkedIn’s Post Inspector to inspect the shared URL after checking its metadata and image. For another service, use that service’s current official preview debugger if available. For Google Search image previews, follow Google’s image guidance; image selection is automated, so publishers can improve their signals but cannot guarantee a particular thumbnail.
Do not assume that editing the page immediately changes a card that has already been created. There is no single refresh or cache-clearing procedure established for every social platform. Validate with the affected service’s own tools and allow for its handling of previously fetched previews.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Common causes and fixes
| What you observe | Likely issue to check | Practical fix |
|---|---|---|
| The thumbnail visibly contains words in the wrong language | The words are embedded in the image file. | Use a localized asset for that page, or a language-neutral image. |
| A social card shows a different image from the page | The public page’s og:image points to another asset, or the image URL redirects or cannot be fetched. |
Correct the metadata and verify the image URL is publicly accessible and resolves to the intended file. |
| The browser shows the right language but a preview does not | The crawler may receive different HTML or metadata because the page depends on scripts, cookies, login state, or adaptive delivery. | Inspect the unauthenticated public response and expose stable language-specific URLs and metadata. |
| Google shows an unexpected image | Google’s image-preview choice is automated. | Make the relevant page and image signals consistent and accessible; a specific selected thumbnail cannot be guaranteed. |
| Only visitors in India see a different version | Language delivery may depend on location or inferred preferences. | Offer distinct language URLs and a user-controlled language selector instead of forcing a guessed language. |
Or skip the browser setup
If you want to inspect the public page and capture what it serves, ScreenshotNeo can return a screenshot from one GET request. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com/hi-in/page/ -o shot.webpScreenshotNeo removes cookie banners, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before the shot; each cleanup step can be turned off. Bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and the response identifies the page verdict and billing status. Its MCP server lets AI agents use screenshot tools. The free plan includes 1,000 shots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.
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