---
title: "Open Graph"
description: "A protocol developed by Facebook that uses `<meta>` tags in a page's `<head>` to control how content appears when shared on social media platforms — defining the title, description, image, and URL shown in link previews."
url: "https://skribra.com/glossary/open-graph"
type: "glossary-term"
category: "Technical SEO"
updated: "2026-06-09"
---

# Open Graph

**Definition.** A protocol developed by Facebook that uses `<meta>` tags in a page's `<head>` to control how content appears when shared on social media platforms — defining the title, description, image, and URL shown in link previews.

**In short.** Open Graph tags control what your page looks like when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other platforms. Without them, social previews are random. With them, you control the image, title, and description shown.

## Key points

- The four required Open Graph tags are: og:title, og:type, og:image, and og:url — without all four, many platforms fall back to unpredictable defaults
- Twitter/X uses its own variant called Twitter Cards (twitter:card, twitter:title, twitter:image) but falls back to Open Graph tags if Twitter Cards aren't present
- og:image dimensions should be 1200×630 pixels for optimal display across platforms; images smaller than 600px wide may not render as large cards
- Open Graph tags don't directly affect Google rankings but influence social sharing behavior, which indirectly generates traffic and links

## Essential Open Graph Tags

The Open Graph protocol defines four required properties and many optional ones[1]. Required: `og:title` (the [title shown in the preview](https://skribra.com/tools/open-graph-preview), can differ from the HTML `<title>`), `og:type` (content type — 'website' for most pages, 'article' for blog posts), `og:image` (the preview image URL — this has the biggest visual impact on click-through from social), and `og:url` (the canonical URL of the page). Recommended additional tags: `og:description` (2–4 sentence summary), `og:site_name` (your brand name), and for articles: `og:article:published_time` and `og:article:author`. These tags are placed in the `<head>` of your HTML: `<meta property='og:title' content='Your Title Here' />`.

## Open Graph vs. Twitter Cards

Twitter/X uses a separate but similar meta tag specification called Twitter Cards[1][2]. The key Twitter Card tags are: `twitter:card` (set to 'summary_large_image' for full-width image previews), `twitter:title`, `twitter:description`, and `twitter:image`. Twitter falls back to Open Graph tags when Twitter Card tags are absent — so implementing OG tags covers you on Twitter as well. LinkedIn, Pinterest, and most other platforms read Open Graph tags directly. The practical recommendation: implement full Open Graph tags for broad coverage, then add `twitter:card` and `twitter:site` specifically for Twitter to get the larger card format. In Next.js, the Metadata API allows you to set both via the `openGraph` and `twitter` objects in `generateMetadata()`.

## Open Graph and SEO

Open Graph tags don't directly influence Google rankings, but they have meaningful indirect SEO effects[2]. [Better social preview images](https://skribra.com/features/ai-cover-images) and titles increase [click-through rate](https://skribra.com/glossary/click-through-rate) from social shares — driving more traffic per share. Higher traffic and engagement signals from social may correlate with improved rankings (though causation is debated). More importantly, compelling social previews increase the chance that readers share content further and that journalists or bloggers who see the content link to it — generating the [backlinks](https://skribra.com/glossary/backlink) that do directly affect rankings. For technical implementation in Next.js 15 (the framework Skribra's landing site uses), the Metadata API's `openGraph` object in `generateMetadata()` handles OG tags without manually writing `<meta>` tags.

## Related terms

- [Meta Description](https://skribra.com/glossary/meta-description): An HTML attribute that provides a 150–160 character summary of a web page, often displayed as the snippet text beneath the title link in search engine results.
- [Click-Through Rate (CTR)](https://skribra.com/glossary/click-through-rate): The percentage of users who click on a search result after seeing it in the SERP, calculated as (clicks ÷ impressions) × 100.
- [Schema Markup](https://skribra.com/glossary/schema-markup): Structured data code added to a web page's HTML that helps search engines understand content context and enables rich results like star ratings, breadcrumbs, product prices, and event details in the SERP.
- [Title Tag](https://skribra.com/glossary/title-tag): An HTML element that specifies the title of a web page, displayed as the clickable headline in search engine results and in browser tabs — one of the most important on-page SEO elements.

## Sources

1. [Open Graph Protocol — Official Documentation](https://ogp.me/)
2. [Ahrefs — What Is Open Graph and How to Use It for SEO](https://ahrefs.com/blog/open-graph-meta-tags/)

## Machine-readable index

- HTML version of this page: https://skribra.com/glossary/open-graph
- Site index for agents: https://skribra.com/llms.txt
- Sitemap: https://skribra.com/sitemap.xml
- Public REST API: https://skribra.com/api/v1
- OpenAPI specification: https://skribra.com/openapi.json