Open Graph is a protocol developed by Facebook that controls how your page appears when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, and most platforms that render link previews. The core tags are og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url.

Why is my Open Graph image not showing up?

The most common causes are: og:image is not an absolute URL, the image is smaller than 200x200 pixels or larger than 8MB, the image URL returns a non-200 status, or the platform cached an old preview. Use Facebook's Sharing Debugger or Twitter's Card Validator to clear the cache.

What image size should I use for Open Graph?

Use 1200 by 630 pixels for best cross-platform results. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Slack all render this size cleanly. The minimum is 600 by 315; smaller images typically render as small thumbnails rather than dominant hero cards.

Do Open Graph tags affect Google rankings?

No, Open Graph tags are not a direct ranking factor. However, better previews earn more clicks, more shares, and more backlinks, all of which feed Google's engagement signals and indirectly support rankings.

Do I need both Open Graph and Twitter Card tags?

Not strictly. X falls back to Open Graph if no twitter:* tags are present. But explicit Twitter tags give you more control over the card format (summary vs summary_large_image) and lets you set a different image specifically for X.

Open Graph Checker

Inspect any URL's Open Graph tags, meta description, and Twitter Card data to verify correct social previews and SEO output.

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Essential Open Graph Tags

The tags every page should have to render a clean social preview.

Tag	Purpose	Priority
og:title	Title shown in the social card. Falls back to <title> if absent.	Critical
og:description	Short description below the title.	Critical
og:image	Preview image (1200 × 630 recommended, absolute URL required).	Critical
og:url	Canonical URL the card should point to.	High
og:type	Object type (website, article, product, video). Defaults to website.	Medium
og:site_name	Brand or site name displayed alongside the preview.	Medium
twitter:card	Preview format on X (summary, summary_large_image).	High
twitter:image	Image used specifically on X. Falls back to og:image.	Medium
twitter:site	@handle of the site. Shows author/site attribution on X.	Low

What Is Open Graph?

Open Graph is a protocol - originally created by Facebook and now adopted almost everywhere - that lets a webpage tell social platforms exactly how it should appear when shared. The tags live in the <head> of your HTML and are invisible on the page itself, but they control the image, headline, and description on every share preview.

Setting up Open Graph is one of the highest-leverage SEO and marketing fixes you can make. A page with proper OG tags earns 2-3x more clicks on social shares than one without. This checker fetches any public URL, parses the og:* and twitter:* tags, and shows you exactly how Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Google will render your page - plus the issues you should fix before your next share.

Always use absolute URLs

og:image and og:url must start with https://, not a relative path. Platforms that receive relative URLs usually drop the preview entirely.

Ship an og:image on every page

Even a generic site-wide fallback is better than nothing. Pages without og:image render as text-only links and see dramatically lower CTR.

Match og:title to your message

Do not reuse your SEO title verbatim. Social clicks respond to different hooks than Google clicks. A/B test headlines here the way you would an email subject line.

Refresh the cache after edits

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Slack aggressively cache previews. After updating OG tags on a live URL, run it through Facebook's Sharing Debugger to force a fresh scrape.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Open Graph tags and social previews.

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