# Open Graph Checker > Preview how a URL will appear when shared on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn **Category:** Dev **Keywords:** open graph, og tags, twitter card, facebook share, linkedin, social media preview, meta tags, seo **URL:** https://complete.tools/open-graph-checker ## Why Open Graph Matters When your content is shared on social media, the preview card is often the deciding factor in whether someone clicks. A well-configured OG setup can dramatically increase click-through rates because it presents your content in the most compelling way possible. Missing or misconfigured OG tags can cause several problems. Social platforms may pull a random image from the page instead of your intended hero image. The title might be truncated from the page `` tag rather than using a more shareable headline. The description may be empty or pulled from the first paragraph on the page. For marketers, OG tags are especially important for paid social campaigns. When a landing page link is shared or used in ads, the preview card directly affects ad performance. For developers and SEO professionals, verifying OG tags before a launch or after a site migration is standard practice. ## Key OG Tags Explained - **og:title** — The headline shown in the share card. Keep it under 60 characters for best display on most platforms. - **og:description** — A summary shown below the title. Aim for 100–200 characters. This should be compelling and scannable. - **og:image** — The preview image URL. Use a 1200x630 pixel image (1.91:1 ratio) for best results across all platforms. Images smaller than 200x200 may not display. - **og:url** — The canonical URL of the page. Should match the actual page URL without query strings or tracking parameters. - **og:type** — The content type. Common values are `website`, `article`, `video.movie`, and `product`. Defaults to `website`. - **og:site_name** — The name of your website or brand. Appears as a small label on some platforms. - **og:locale** — The language and region of the content (e.g., `en_US`). Important for international sites. ## Twitter Card vs Open Graph Twitter Cards are Twitter's own metadata system for controlling how links appear in tweets. They use `twitter:` prefixed meta tags rather than `og:` tags. The key Twitter Card types are `summary` (small square image), `summary_large_image` (large horizontal image), and `player` (embeds video). Most sites use `summary_large_image` for the best visual impact. The good news is that Twitter falls back to OG tags if Twitter Card tags are missing. So if you have `og:title`, `og:description`, and `og:image` set correctly, Twitter will use them automatically. However, adding dedicated Twitter Card tags gives you more control and ensures the correct card type is used. LinkedIn also reads OG tags and does not have its own proprietary tag system. Facebook, of course, invented OG tags and supports them fully. Slack, Discord, iMessage, and most modern messaging apps also read OG tags to generate link previews. ## How to use 1. Enter the full URL of the page you want to check in the input field. 2. Click "Check Open Graph Tags" to analyze the metadata. 3. View the simulated preview cards for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 4. Check the Raw Metadata table for the exact tag values found. 5. Review the Missing Tags warning and Recommendations to improve your setup. 6. Fix any issues in your page's HTML `<head>` section and re-check. ## FAQs **Q:** Why does my image not show in the preview card? **A:** The most common causes are: the image URL is relative instead of absolute, the image is too small (under 200x200 pixels), or the server returns a non-2xx response for the image URL. Use an absolute URL and ensure the image is at least 1200x630 pixels for best results. **Q:** How long does it take for social platforms to update their cached preview? **A:** Each platform caches link previews for different amounts of time. Facebook provides a Sharing Debugger tool to force a re-scrape. Twitter/X also has a Card Validator. LinkedIn's cache can take several days to refresh without manual intervention. **Q:** Do OG tags affect Google search rankings? **A:** Not directly. OG tags are designed for social platforms, not search engines. However, higher click-through rates from compelling social previews can indirectly improve your content's reach and backlink profile, which does affect SEO. **Q:** Should og:title and the page title tag be the same? **A:** Not necessarily. Your page `<title>` tag is optimized for search engines and browser tabs. Your `og:title` should be optimized for social sharing. They can differ to account for the different contexts. **Q:** What is the ideal og:image size? **A:** The recommended size is 1200x630 pixels with a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. This works well across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The minimum size to guarantee a preview is 200x200 pixels, but small images often appear with a thumbnail layout rather than the large card layout. **Q:** What happens if I have no OG tags at all? **A:** Social platforms fall back to guessing. Facebook and LinkedIn will crawl the page and attempt to extract a title from `<title>`, a description from the first paragraph, and an image from any `<img>` tag on the page. The result is often incorrect or unattractive. Adding OG tags is strongly recommended for any page you want to be shared. --- *Generated from [complete.tools/open-graph-checker](https://complete.tools/open-graph-checker)*