What is Open Graph?

How it works

When a URL is pasted into a post or chat, the platform's scraper fetches the page and reads its og: tags. The four required properties are og:title, og:type, og:image, and og:url. og:description and og:site_name are commonly added, and article:published_time and similar tags apply to articles.

Without OG tags, platforms guess: they may use the HTML title, the first paragraph, and whichever image they find first, often a logo or an ad. Scrapers cache what they find, so after changing tags you may need a platform's debugging tool (such as Facebook's Sharing Debugger or LinkedIn's Post Inspector) to refresh the preview.

Scrapers generally do not run JavaScript. OG tags must be in the server-rendered HTML.

Example

<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<meta property="og:title" content="The 16:1 Rule for Better Pour-Over" />
<meta property="og:description" content="One ratio, three variables, and a 3-minute pour schedule." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/pour-over-share.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/pour-over-guide/" />
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Kiln Coffee" />

Use an image of about 1200 by 630 pixels (a 1.91:1 ratio), with an absolute URL, and keep text on it large and away from the edges.

In WordPress

WordPress core does not output Open Graph tags. SEO plugins do. Hydrogen SEO outputs them on every page and resolves each value in order: per-post OG fields in the SEO Settings sheet, then the SEO title and meta description, then (for the image) the featured image and finally the default share image from the Social screen. A live share-card preview shows the result as you type. See Open Graph settings and social share previews.

Common mistakes

• No og:image, so platforms pick a random image or none.
• Relative image URLs, which many scrapers cannot resolve.
• Two plugins printing OG tags, giving scrapers conflicting values.
• Images that are too small, which some platforms show as a tiny thumbnail instead of a large card.