# Open Graph

Open Graph is a protocol of meta tags that tells other platforms how to draw a link to your page. It was created at Facebook in 2010 and is read by LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp and most messaging apps. It is not a Google ranking signal: it decides whether a shared link looks worth clicking.

Updated 2026-09-15 · Source: https://porteur.ai/glossary/open-graph

## The tags that matter

```html
<meta property="og:title" content="Invoicing for freelancers">
<meta property="og:description" content="Send an invoice in twenty seconds. No account needed to try.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourproduct.com/og.png">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yourproduct.com/">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Yourproduct">
```

- og:title and og:description: written for the share, not copied from the page title if that title is dull out of context.
- og:image: the one that decides the click. About 1200 by 630 pixels, under a few hundred kilobytes, reachable without a login.
- og:url: the canonical address, so shares of the same page through different addresses count as one page.
- og:type: website for most pages, article for a post with a date.

## The image rules

| Rule | Why |
| --- | --- |
| About 1200 by 630 pixels | The wide card shape every platform crops towards |
| An absolute URL | A relative path resolves against the wrong host in most crawlers |
| No login, no hotlink protection | The platform fetches it as an anonymous visitor |
| Text large enough to read at card size | Cards are shown small; a paragraph in the image is unreadable |
| Under a few hundred kilobytes | Slow images time out and the card falls back to a bare link |

## How to test it

1. **Read the tags** View source and check the four that matter are present and absolute.
2. **Post the link somewhere private** A draft message to yourself in Slack or a direct message shows the real card, which is the only test that matters.
3. **Check one page of each template** The home page, a pricing page and one library page usually use different templates, and one of them is always missing the image.
4. **Remember the caches** Platforms cache the card. After a change, the old image can persist for a while on links already shared.

> X reads its own twitter: tags first and falls back to Open Graph, so a page with good Open Graph tags already previews correctly there.

## Questions

### Does Open Graph help SEO?

Not directly. Google does not use Open Graph tags for ranking. They decide how a shared link looks, which affects whether people click it and therefore whether the page earns visits and mentions.

### What size should an og:image be?

About 1200 by 630 pixels, served over an absolute URL without a login, and small enough to fetch quickly. Keep any text on it large enough to read at card size.

### Do I need both Open Graph and Twitter card tags?

Not necessarily. X falls back to Open Graph when the twitter: tags are missing. Add the twitter: tags when you want a different image or a different card type there.

### Why does my link show the wrong image?

Usually a cached card from before your change, a relative image URL, or an image behind a login. Check the tag is absolute and fetchable, then share the link again.

### What should og:url point to?

The canonical address of the page. That way shares through tracking parameters or alternative hosts are counted as the same page rather than several.

## Read next

- [Twitter card](https://porteur.ai/glossary/twitter-card): A Twitter card is the preview drawn when a link is posted on X. The tags, the two types in use, the fallback to Open Graph, and how to test one.
- [Social preview checker](https://porteur.ai/tools/social-preview-checker): Paste a URL and see the card a share produces on X, LinkedIn and Slack: the Open Graph tags read, the image fetched and measured, and what to fix first.
- [Meta description](https://porteur.ai/glossary/meta-description): What a meta description is, how long to make it, why Google rewrites it, how to check yours, and what to write anyway for higher CTR.
- [Title tag](https://porteur.ai/glossary/title-tag): A title tag is the HTML title of a page. See how long it should be, why Google rewrites it, what to put in it, and how to fix weak titles.
- [Canonical URL](https://porteur.ai/glossary/canonical-url): A canonical URL names the original version of a page. Use it to handle parameters and duplicates, avoid split signals and keep the right page indexed.
- [On-page SEO checklist: the twelve things on the page](https://porteur.ai/guides/on-page-seo-checklist): The twelve page elements that move clicks and rankings, with examples you can copy to your own product pages today.
- [Structured data](https://porteur.ai/glossary/structured-data): Structured data is schema markup that names your page type. See why it changes results, how to add JSON-LD, and how to validate it.

The free check reads what your pages tell Google and the platforms that draw your links, in about thirty seconds. Free check: https://porteur.ai/