Open Graph and social previews
When somebody shares your page on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp or in a text message, Open Graph tags decide whether it appears as a rich preview or a bare address.
What it is
Open Graph is a small set of meta tags, originally from Facebook and now honoured almost everywhere, that specify the title, description and image to use for a link preview. Twitter Card tags do the same for X.
Without them, platforms guess, and often guess badly: a navigation heading as the title and a logo fragment as the image.
Why it matters
A link with a proper image and headline attracts far more clicks than a naked URL. This matters most in exactly the places small businesses get shared, such as local community groups and messaging apps.
It is also the cheapest win on this list. It is a handful of tags and it never needs revisiting once set.
How to fix it
- Add og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url and og:type to every page.
- Use an image around 1200 by 630 pixels, and make sure it is reachable at an absolute HTTPS address.
- Add twitter:card set to summary_large_image so X renders the bigger preview.
- Test with the sharing debuggers each platform provides, which also clears their caches.
What good looks like
<meta property="og:title" content="Emergency Plumber in Ballarat">
<meta property="og:description" content="Same-day callouts across Ballarat. Licensed and insured.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com.au/social-card.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com.au/emergency-plumbing">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">Common mistakes
- Using a relative path for og:image, which most platforms cannot resolve.
- Setting one image for the whole site, so every shared page looks identical.
- Expecting an update to appear immediately; platforms cache previews aggressively.
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