Open Graph meta tags are snippets of HTML code that control how your website content appears when shared on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and messaging apps. They define the title, description, image, and URL that display in the preview card. Without proper OG tags, social platforms will guess which content to display—often resulting in unappealing, low-CTR previews. Well-optimized OG tags can significantly increase click-through rates from social media shares.

og:image is the universal Open Graph image tag used by Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and most other platforms. twitter:image is a Twitter/X-specific tag that overrides the OG image for Twitter Card display. If twitter:image is not set, Twitter falls back to og:image. Best practice: set both, using a 1200×630px (1.91:1 ratio) image for OG and optionally a 1200×600px (2:1 ratio) image for Twitter's summary_large_image card. Use this tester to verify both render correctly.

Facebook / LinkedIn: 1200×630 pixels (1.91:1 ratio) is the optimal size. Minimum is 600×315px. Images smaller than 600px wide may appear as a small thumbnail.

Twitter/X (summary_large_image): 1200×600 pixels (2:1 ratio) works best. Twitter also accepts 1.91:1 images but may crop them slightly.

Twitter/X (summary card): Square 144×144px minimum, but 300×300 or larger recommended for high-DPI displays.

Max file size: Facebook recommends under 8MB; Twitter recommends under 5MB for images. Use JPEG or PNG format for broadest compatibility.

Facebook heavily caches OG data. If you recently updated your meta tags, Facebook may still be displaying the old version. To fix this:

1. Use Facebook's official Sharing Debugger tool at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
2. Paste your URL and click "Debug"
3. Click "Scrape Again" to force Facebook to re-fetch your page's OG tags

This clears Facebook's cache for your URL. You can also append a query string (like ?v=2) to your URL when sharing to bypass the cache temporarily.

LinkedIn primarily uses Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url) to generate link previews. LinkedIn does not have its own proprietary meta tag system—it relies entirely on the OG protocol. However, LinkedIn's preview display differs slightly from Facebook's: LinkedIn shows the image, title, and domain (but typically no description text in the main card). LinkedIn also caches OG data, and you can use their Post Inspector tool at linkedin.com/post-inspector/ to refresh the cache.

Facebook: Title displays up to ~60-80 characters (mobile) and ~90 characters (desktop) before truncation. Description shows ~30-40 characters on mobile and ~65 characters on desktop. Aim for titles under 70 characters and descriptions under 200 characters.

Twitter/X: Title displays up to ~70 characters for summary_large_image cards. Description shows up to ~200 characters.

LinkedIn: Title truncates at ~70 characters. Description can be up to ~250 characters but is often hidden in the main card view.

Use the live previews above to visually check truncation before publishing.