Open Graph Tag Checker

Open Graph tags are deceptively simple — just a few meta tags in your HTML. But getting them right is what separates link previews that drive clicks from ones that get ignored. Here are the best practices that top marketers and developers follow religiously.

Craft a Compelling og:title

Your og:title is the headline of your link preview. It doesn't have to match your page's title tag — in fact, it often shouldn't. Your SEO title is optimized for search engines (with keywords near the front). Your og:title should be optimized for social sharing: punchy, curiosity-driven, and action-oriented. Keep it under 60 characters to avoid truncation on most platforms. Think of it as a mini-headline that needs to earn a click in a noisy social feed.

Write Descriptions That Sell the Click

The og:description appears below the title in link previews. It's your chance to explain what the reader will get by clicking. Aim for 100-200 characters. Lead with the value proposition, not the topic. Instead of "This article covers five SEO tips," try "Five SEO changes that doubled our organic traffic in 90 days." That's the difference between a description people read and one people click.

Invest in Custom og:image Files

This is the single highest-impact thing you can do for social sharing. A custom, branded og:image at 1200 x 630 pixels makes your link previews look professional and trustworthy. Avoid using generic stock photos or your logo alone — create image templates with your headline text overlaid on a branded background. Tools like Canva, Figma, or even automated solutions (like dynamic OG image generators) can produce these at scale.

Always Set og:url to the Canonical URL

The og:url tag tells social platforms which URL is the "true" version of the page. If the same content is accessible at multiple URLs (with and without tracking parameters, HTTP vs. HTTPS, www vs. non-www), setting og:url consolidates all social engagement — likes, shares, comments — to a single URL. This is the same concept as canonical URLs in SEO, but for social platforms.

Include Both OG and Twitter Card Tags

While Twitter/X falls back to OG tags when Twitter Card tags are missing, relying on fallbacks is lazy. Specify twitter:card (usually summary_large_image), twitter:title, twitter:description, and twitter:image explicitly. This gives you full control over how your content appears on Twitter — and prevents any mismatches between what Facebook shows and what Twitter shows.

Use Absolute URLs for All Properties

Every URL-type property in your OG tags must be an absolute URL starting with https://. Relative paths like /images/og-image.jpg won't work — social platforms can't resolve them. Double-check your og:image, og:url, and twitter:image values to make sure they include the full domain.

Test on Every Platform After Changes

Each social platform caches OG data differently. After updating your tags, use Facebook's Sharing Debugger (developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/) to clear Facebook's cache. Use LinkedIn's Post Inspector to refresh LinkedIn's cache. Twitter's cache refreshes automatically but can take up to a week. Don't assume an update on your server means an instant update on social platforms.

Set og:type Correctly

The og:type tag tells platforms what kind of content you're sharing. Use website for your homepage and general pages, and article for blog posts and news content. Articles get special treatment on some platforms — Facebook, for instance, may display additional metadata like publish date and author for article-type content. Getting this right is a small detail that adds up.

Don't Forget the Messaging Apps

iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, and Telegram all generate link previews using OG tags. These platforms are a massive, often overlooked traffic source. When someone pastes a link in a group chat, a polished preview card with a compelling image and headline is far more likely to get clicked than a bare URL. Optimize for social media and you automatically optimize for messaging apps too.