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Open Graph tags: the social preview checklist

Control how links look on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, and X. Image sizes, required tags, and how to refresh a cached preview.

6 min readSeptember 4, 2026
Free toolOpen Graph Generator

OG tags are the share card

When someone pastes your URL in Slack or LinkedIn, the card comes from Open Graph tags — not from your CSS. Missing og:image is why shares look like a lonely blue link.

Set og:title, og:description, og:url, og:type, og:image, and og:site_name. Use article for posts and website for most other pages.

Images that survive the crop

Use 1200×630. Keep important text in the center third. Host the file on HTTPS with an absolute URL. Relative paths fail on most platforms.

X/Twitter can reuse OG tags. A twitter:card of summary_large_image still gives a better large preview when you have a dedicated image.

Preview before you publish

The Open Graph Generator shows Google, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn cards side by side. After you deploy, scrape the URL in each platform debugger so old images leave the cache.

Frequently asked questions

Do OG tags help Google rankings?

Not as a ranking factor. They improve social click-through and brand presentation.

Can og:title differ from the title tag?

Slightly, yes. Keep them aligned so people are not surprised when they land.

Why is LinkedIn showing an old image?

It cached the first scrape. Use LinkedIn’s Post Inspector to refresh.

Open Open Graph Generator

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