What Open Graph tags do
When someone shares a link on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, WhatsApp or Slack, the platform reads the page’s Open Graph tags to build the preview card: title, description and image. Without them, platforms guess, often picking the wrong image or no image at all, and the share gets far fewer clicks.
The tags that matter
- og:title: the headline of the card. It can differ from your SEO title.
- og:description: one or two sentences shown under the title.
- og:image: the picture. Use 1200 x 630 pixels (a 1.91:1 ratio), under 5 MB, in JPG or PNG.
- og:url: the canonical URL of the page.
- og:type: usually website or article.
- twitter:card: set it to summary_large_image to get a big image on X. X falls back to the Open Graph tags for the title, description and image.
Why your preview might look wrong
- The image URL is relative, blocked by robots.txt or returns an error.
- The image is too small, so platforms show a tiny thumbnail.
- The platform cached an old version. Facebook and LinkedIn have their own tools to refresh the cache.
- Several plugins add duplicate tags with different values.
In WordPress, SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast create these tags for you from the featured image and the SEO title. Check how the title looks in Google with our SERP Snippet Preview.
Frequently asked questions
Do Open Graph tags help SEO?
Not directly for rankings, but better share previews bring more clicks and visits from social media, which helps content get seen and linked.
What is the best og:image size?
1200 x 630 pixels works well on every major platform.
Is this preview exactly what Facebook will show?
It is a close approximation. Each platform crops and styles the card a little differently.