seo/update-social-defaults sets the default Open Graph and Twitter output per content type: the fallback image, title and description templates used when a post has none of its own, and the Twitter card type.
Distinct from seo/update-social-profiles, which is the list of accounts the site links to.
At a glance
| Ability | seo/update-social-defaults |
| Toolset | Yoast SEO — toolset/yoast-seo |
| Group | Yoast SEO › Settings |
| Requires | Yoast SEO, active on the site |
| Capability | manage_options |
| Safety | Writes data |
| Repeatable | Idempotent — running it twice leaves the same result |
| Ships in | AcrossAI Abilities Manager 0.0.34 and later |
How it works
The fallback image is the setting that earns its keep. A post shared without one produces a link preview with no image at all, which looks broken and performs measurably worse — and most posts do not have a dedicated social image.
One good site-wide fallback covers every post that never got its own, which on most sites is nearly all of them.
The image has size requirements from the platforms rather than from Yoast, and an image below them is either cropped oddly or ignored. Something wide and well over a thousand pixels is the safe shape.
Title and description templates here are separate from the SEO ones. That separation is genuinely useful: a search result title and a shared-link title are read in completely different contexts and rarely want the same words.
The Twitter card type decides between a small thumbnail and a large image. Large performs better for most content and is the usual choice.
Idempotent.
Input
| Name | Type | Required | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
settings | object | Yes | A map of setting key to new value. Keys outside this area are refused. |
What comes back
| Name | Type | What it is |
|---|---|---|
updated | array | The keys that changed. |
settings | object | The area after the write. |
success | boolean | Whether the call completed. |
message | string | A one-line summary of what happened, suitable for showing a human. |
error_code | string | Present only on failure — a stable machine-readable reason, such as a missing field, a wrong field type or an unmet confirmation. |
Example
Ask your assistant:
Set a default image for when our posts are shared.
It resolves to one call:
{
"ability": "seo/update-social-defaults",
"parameters": {
"settings": { "og_default_image": "https://example.com/wp-content/uploads/social.png" }
}
}Worth knowing
- The fallback image is the highest-value setting here. Most posts have none of their own.
- Platform size requirements, not Yoast’s — go wide and large.
- Social titles and SEO titles are separate on purpose.
- Large Twitter cards outperform small ones for most content.
Related abilities
- Update Social Profile URLs — the identity side
- Update Title And Meta Templates — the search-side titles
Get the plugins:
AcrossAI Abilities Manager · AcrossAI MCP Manager
Browse the rest: Every ability, by category