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Definition
Open Graph (OG) is a protocol created by Facebook that allows web pages to control how they appear when shared on social media. OG meta tags specify the title, description, image, and URL that display in social media previews on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Slack, and other platforms.
When someone shares a URL on social media, the platform's crawler fetches the page and reads its Open Graph meta tags to build a preview card. The essential OG tags are: og:title (headline), og:description (summary), og:image (preview image, ideally 1200x630px), og:url (canonical URL), and og:type (content type — website, article, product, etc.).
Without OG tags, social platforms attempt to guess the title, description, and image — often with poor results. A missing or wrong og:image means no visual preview, dramatically reducing engagement. Properly configured OG tags can significantly increase click-through rates from social media shares.
Twitter uses its own meta tags (twitter:card, twitter:title, twitter:description, twitter:image) but falls back to OG tags if Twitter-specific tags are not present. LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, and most messaging apps also read OG tags. Testing is important: Facebook's Sharing Debugger, Twitter Card Validator, and LinkedIn Post Inspector let you preview and debug how your pages will appear when shared.