Do you use title tags and meta description tags? Of course you do—because strong titles influence rankings and meta descriptions influence click-throughs. But great on-page SEO doesn’t stop there.

Those same pages also need social meta tags. Beyond Google, platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter) read Open Graph–style tags to decide how your links look when shared. Use them well and you’ll earn larger previews, better images, and more social clicks.

Ever see posts in your feed with big, crisp images, clean titles, and descriptions? You don’t need special software or paid tools to get that look. You just need the right meta tags.

They’re called Open Graph (used by Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, iMessage, etc.) and Twitter (X) Cards. Here’s how to leverage both:

Open Graph (for Facebook, LinkedIn & more)

When you share a page on social platforms, what does it look like?

Each platform’s crawler tries to read your page, but it won’t reliably pick the best image, title, or description unless you provide Open Graph tags. Without them, shares can look bare or generic:

Before we implemented Open Graph on Quick Sprout, our Facebook shares often showed no image or the wrong one. After adding the right tags, link previews consistently displayed strong visuals and we saw a significant lift in social traffic.

Here’s how to set up Open Graph correctly.

og:title

Use the human-friendly title you want shown in the preview. Think of this like your HTML title, but optimized for people in the feed. Aim for clear, scannable phrasing (roughly 60–90 characters) to avoid truncation.

Example: <meta property=”og:title” content=”11 Creative Ways to Build Links” />

og:type

Describe the content type so platforms can choose the right presentation. For most blog content, use article. Other commonly used types include website, product, and the video family, e.g., video.movie or video.episode. Unless you have a specific need, stick with article for posts and website for generic pages.

Example: <meta property=”og:type” content=”article” />

og:description

Write a compelling, human-first summary that entices a click. Don’t stuff keywords—focus on clarity and benefit. Keep it short (1–2 sentences) so it won’t be truncated in most feeds.

Example: <meta property=”og:description” content=”Tired of old-school link building? Here are modern, creative ways to earn high-quality links without blasting cold emails.” />

og:image

Always supply a share image so your post stands out. Use a large, high-resolution image—at least 1200×630 px (?1.91:1) for best display on high-resolution devices. Keep the file size reasonable and serve over HTTPS. Prefer JPG or PNG for widest compatibility (some platforms still don’t reliably render WebP). Include explicit dimensions for faster, more reliable rendering.

Examples:
<meta property=”og:image” content=”https://www.example.com/images/linkbuilding-1200×630.jpg” />
<meta property=”og:image:width” content=”1200″ />
<meta property=”og:image:height” content=”630″ />
<meta property=”og:image:alt” content=”Creative link building ideas illustrated” />

Tip: If you support multiple sizes, you can include multiple og:image tags. The crawler will choose the best fit.

og:url

Set this to the canonical URL of the page. This helps consolidate engagement signals to a single address if your content is available at multiple URLs.

Example: <meta property=”og:url” content=”https://www.quicksprout.com/2013/03/21/11-creative-ways-to-build-links/” />

og:site_name

Communicates your brand name. Optional but useful.

Example: <meta property=”og:site_name” content=”Quick Sprout” />

fb:app_id (optional)

If you want deeper Insights data and ownership verification within Meta’s ecosystem, connect your site to a Facebook App and include fb:app_id. The older fb:admins tag is legacy and generally unnecessary in modern setups.

Example: <meta property=”fb:app_id” content=”1234567890″ />

Now that your Open Graph tags are set, let’s add Twitter (X) Cards.

Twitter (X) Cards

Rich previews appear when your page includes Twitter (X) Card tags. They help your links stand out and earn more clicks directly from the timeline. If Twitter tags are missing, X will often fall back to Open Graph—still, set both for consistency.

If you use the SEO for WordPress plugin by Yoast, follow these steps. Rank Math and AIOSEO offer similar toggles to enable Twitter (X) Cards automatically. For manual markup, use the tags below.

twitter:card

Choose the card layout. Use summary_large_image for most blog posts (big image), summary for a compact layout, and player for video/audio embeds.

Example: <meta name=”twitter:card” content=”summary_large_image” />

twitter:url

Specify the canonical URL so shares consolidate to one address instead of fragmenting across parameters or duplicates.

Example: <meta name=”twitter:url” content=”https://www.quicksprout.com/2013/03/21/11-creative-ways-to-build-links/” />

twitter:title

Keep it punchy and human. Avoid keyword stuffing. Staying under ~70 characters helps prevent truncation in most clients.

Example: <meta name=”twitter:title” content=”11 Creative Ways to Build Links” />

twitter:description

Summarize the benefit in one or two sentences. Focus on clarity and curiosity, not keywords. Aim for ~200 characters or less to avoid cutoffs.

Example: <meta name=”twitter:description” content=”Tired of old-school link building? Try these creative tactics to earn quality links without mass outreach.” />

twitter:image

Provide a large image so your preview pops. A common choice is 1200×628 px (similar to Open Graph). Use fast-loading, high-quality JPG or PNG files hosted over HTTPS.

Example: <meta name=”twitter:image” content=”https://www.example.com/images/linkbuilding-1200×628.jpg” />

Optional but Useful

Add your handle and a creator handle to enhance brand visibility in-card.

Examples:
<meta name=”twitter:site” content=”@YourBrand” />
<meta name=”twitter:creator” content=”@AuthorHandle” />

Testing & Troubleshooting

After you add tags, platforms fetch your page the first time someone shares it. If previews don’t look right, try these fixes:

  • Facebook: Use Meta’s Sharing Debugger to preview and refresh the cache if the wrong image or title appears.
  • LinkedIn: Use Post Inspector to see the exact preview and to force LinkedIn to re-scrape your URL.
  • X (Twitter): Use the Card Validator and X’s Cards troubleshooting docs to confirm your tags and preview rendering.
  • Ensure your page is publicly accessible (no logins required) and not blocked by robots.txt or noindex headers.
  • Serve images over HTTPS with correct Content-Type headers, keep image files under common platform limits, and include og:image:width/og:image:height for faster, more reliable rendering.
  • Clear your CDN and WordPress caching plugin after changing tags or images so crawlers see the latest version.

Heads up: LinkedIn and many messaging apps primarily use Open Graph. If your X preview looks fine but LinkedIn crops oddly, verify your image is 1200×630 (?1.91:1) rather than a tall aspect ratio.

WordPress Setup (Fast Path)

On WordPress, the easiest route is to let your SEO plugin output these tags for you:

  • Yoast SEO: Enable Open Graph and Twitter (X) Cards, set your default social images, and customize per post in the editor.
  • Rank Math / AIOSEO: Similar toggles with per-post overrides and site-wide fallbacks.
  • Theme builders: Some themes add partial support—prefer the SEO plugin’s controls to keep things consistent.

Still, always preview your most important posts with the platform debuggers to confirm the exact image, title, and description that will appear.

Conclusion

Meta tags aren’t just for search engines. Social platforms rely on them to build rich link previews that influence whether people click. Just as you optimize titles and descriptions for Google, optimize Open Graph and Twitter (X) tags so your content looks its best wherever it’s shared.

It’s a small setup that pays off with cleaner previews, stronger branding, and more visits from social media—on every share.