Open Graph Tags — Complete Guide to Social Media Link Previews
What Open Graph Tags Do
Open Graph tags are HTML meta tags that control the preview when someone shares your URL on social media. Without them, platforms choose the title, description, and image automatically — which often gives poor results. With OG tags you specify exactly what should appear in the preview card.
The Essential Four Tags
Four tags cover most use cases: og:title (the headline), og:description (the summary under the title), og:image (the preview image), and og:url (the canonical URL). These four together give every major platform what it needs to render a clean, informative preview card.
Image Dimensions and Format
The recommended OG image size is 1200x630 pixels. This ratio renders well on Facebook, LinkedIn, and most messaging apps. Twitter cards work with the same dimensions. Use JPEG or PNG format and keep file size under 1 MB. Avoid text-heavy images since they often get cropped differently on each platform.
Twitter-Specific Tags
Twitter has its own card system that extends Open Graph. The most important is twitter:card, which can be set to summary, summary_large_image, or app. summary_large_image is the most visually impactful. If twitter-specific tags are absent, Twitter falls back to the og: equivalents.
Testing Before Publishing
Social platforms cache OG tags aggressively. Facebook has a Sharing Debugger tool and Twitter has a Card Validator that let you see the current preview and clear the cache. Using the OG Preview tool in FreeSEOKit before publishing helps you catch issues with missing tags, wrong dimensions, or truncated descriptions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Preview your Open Graph tags instantly
Use FreeSEOKit's OG Preview tool to see exactly how your link will look on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn before publishing.
Open OG Preview