Open Graph tags control how your content looks when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, and messaging apps. Check og:title, og:description, og:image, and more — with a visual preview of the social card — on any page in one click.
When someone shares a link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, or WhatsApp, the platform doesn't just show a URL — it renders a rich preview card with an image, title, and description. These previews are generated from Open Graph (OG) meta tags in your HTML. Without them, social platforms guess at your content and usually get it wrong, showing a random image, a truncated URL as the title, or no preview at all.
Four Open Graph tags are essential for every page. og:title — the title displayed in the social card. This can differ from your HTML title tag to optimize for social context rather than search results. Keep it under 60 characters for best display. og:description — the description text below the title. Aim for 2-3 sentences that provide context and encourage clicks.
og:image — the preview image, which is arguably the most important OG tag. Use 1200x630 pixels for optimal display across platforms. Images smaller than 200x200 pixels may not display at all. The image should be compelling and contextually relevant — it's the visual hook that drives social clicks. og:url — the canonical URL for the content, which should match your canonical tag to avoid duplicate content signals.
Missing og:image: This is the most damaging mistake. Without an image, your shared link appears as a plain text card that gets dramatically fewer clicks. LinkedIn and Facebook data consistently show that posts with images get 2-3x more engagement than text-only links.
Wrong image dimensions: Using a square image when platforms expect 1.91:1 aspect ratio causes awkward cropping. Using an image that's too small results in a tiny preview or no image at all. Always use 1200x630px for the og:image.
Stale cache: Social platforms cache OG tags aggressively. After updating your tags, you need to clear the cache using Facebook's Sharing Debugger, LinkedIn's Post Inspector, or Twitter's Card Validator. Otherwise, the old preview persists for days or weeks.
Testing OG tags should be part of your publication workflow. Before sharing important content — product launches, blog posts, campaign pages — verify that the social preview looks correct. Check on multiple platforms, as they render cards slightly differently. Facebook and LinkedIn use OG tags directly. Twitter uses its own twitter:card tags (which can fall back to OG tags if Twitter-specific tags are missing).
A browser extension that shows OG tag values and renders a preview directly on the page is faster than copying the URL into platform-specific debugging tools. You can check and fix issues before the page even goes live, rather than discovering a broken preview when the social media team complains.
Beyond the basic four tags, consider og:type (website, article, product), og:site_name, and og:locale for international content. Article pages should include article:published_time and article:author. E-commerce pages benefit from product:price and product:availability. These additional tags help platforms render richer, more informative previews.
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