Open Graph (og:) tags control how a link looks when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack, and most messaging apps. The four essentials are og:title, og:description, og:image (1200×630), and og:url. Add og:type=article for blog posts. Without OG tags, social platforms guess, and guess badly. Click-through from shared links drops 30-40% without proper OG.
What are Open Graph tags and how do you add them?
Open Graph (og:) tags are HTML meta tags placed in your page's <head> that control how links appear when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Slack. Add the four essentials, og:title, og:description, og:image (1200×630px), and og:url. Plus og:type=article for blog posts to boost click-through by 30-40%.
Open Graph tags control how your web pages appear when someone shares a link on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack, or almost any other platform. Without them, social platforms guess — and they almost always get it wrong. With them, you control the title, description, and image that appear every single time your content is shared.
What Are Open Graph Tags?
Open Graph is a protocol created by Facebook and now adopted universally across social platforms. It uses HTML meta tags in your page's <head> section to define how the page should appear when shared as a link preview. The tags look like this:
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title Here">
<meta property="og:description" content="Your description here.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yourdomain.com/page">
When someone pastes your URL into a social post or messaging app, the platform reads these tags and builds the preview card you see. Without the tags, the platform scrapes whatever it can find, usually the wrong title, a random image, and a generic site description.
The Essential Open Graph Tags
og:title
The title that appears in the preview card. This can differ from your HTML title tag, and often should. Social titles can be slightly longer and more conversational since they're not constrained by the 60-character search result limit. Aim for 60–90 characters.
og:description
The description text under the title in the preview. About 200 characters is the practical limit before most platforms truncate. Write it as a compelling one-sentence summary of why the page is worth clicking.
og:image
The image that appears in the preview card. This is the single most impactful element. A strong preview image dramatically increases link click rates compared to no image or a poor one. The recommended size is 1200×630 pixels. Smaller than 600px wide and many platforms won't show it at all.
og:url
The canonical URL of the page. Should match the actual page URL, not a redirect. Some platforms use this for deduplication — if the same content is shared via multiple URL variants, og:url helps them understand which is the canonical version.
og:type
The type of content: "website" for most pages, "article" for blog posts, "product" for ecommerce. Defaults to "website" if omitted. For blog posts, using "article" enables additional tags like publication date.
Twitter Cards: The OG Tags for Twitter/X
Twitter uses its own separate tag set, though it falls back to Open Graph tags if Twitter-specific tags are absent. Adding Twitter-specific tags gives you more control:
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Your description">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/image.jpg">
The summary_large_image card type displays a large header image, the format that performs best for most content. Use summary if you prefer a small thumbnail image instead.
How to Generate and Add OG Tags
Our free meta tag generator builds complete Open Graph and Twitter Card tags alongside your standard SEO meta tags. Fill in the fields under the Social/OG tab, click generate, and copy the complete HTML block into your page's <head>.
If you're using a CMS, most have SEO plugins (Yoast for WordPress, built-in fields for others) that handle Open Graph tags through a UI, no HTML editing required.
The Most Common OG Tag Mistake
Setting og:image to an image that's too small. Platforms have minimum size requirements, Facebook requires 600px wide minimum, and most platforms display best at 1200×630. Using a 300×200 thumbnail means your link previews show a blank card or no image at all, which dramatically reduces engagement. If you're adding OG tags and the image isn't showing, size is usually the problem.
Testing Your Open Graph Tags
Facebook has a Sharing Debugger tool at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug that shows exactly how your page will appear when shared and lets you force a refresh of cached data. LinkedIn and Twitter have similar validators. Test before launching any important page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Open Graph tags affect SEO rankings?
Not directly. Google ignores OG tags for ranking purposes. But they affect social sharing engagement. Better previews get more clicks and shares, which can drive traffic and indirectly build the authority signals that do affect rankings.
What happens if I don't add Open Graph tags?
Social platforms scrape whatever they find: usually the page title tag, the first paragraph of text, and a random image from the page. The result is often poorly cropped, the wrong description, and an unformatted preview that looks unprofessional and gets fewer clicks.
Should og:title be the same as my HTML title tag?
Not necessarily. Your HTML title tag is optimised for 60 characters and a search result context. Your og:title can be longer and more conversational since it appears in a social card context. Many sites use the same title for both, which works fine — but it's worth customising if you want to maximise social performance.
How often does Facebook cache my OG tags?
Facebook caches OG data aggressively, sometimes for days. If you update your tags and the old preview keeps appearing in shares, use Facebook's Sharing Debugger to force a cache refresh. Paste your URL, click Debug, then click "Scrape Again."
The Bottom Line
Open Graph tags are a 10-minute implementation with a measurable impact on how your content performs when shared. Add them to every important page, use the right image size, and test before launching. Our free meta tag generator builds the complete OG and Twitter Card tag set alongside your standard SEO meta tags. No account required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the ideal og:image size in 2026?
1200×630 pixels (1.91:1 aspect ratio). LinkedIn, Facebook, and X all crop to this ratio. File under 1 MB. Use JPG for photos, PNG for text-heavy graphics.
Do og tags affect SEO?
Not directly for Google rankings, but they materially affect referral traffic from social. Higher share CTR means more inbound links and brand mentions, which feed E-E-A-T.
What's the difference between og: and twitter: tags?
Twitter (now X) reads twitter:card, twitter:title, twitter:image when present; falls back to og: tags otherwise. For 95% of sites, og: alone is enough.
Last updated: 21 May 2026, content refreshed with AEO structure for AI engine extraction.
