Open Graph Guide
Learn how WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and X interpret metadata, why caches go stale, and what to change when the public card doesn't match your intent.
The Open Graph protocol tells platforms what title, description, image, and canonical URL to use when someone shares a web page. Without it, networks and chat apps often guess incorrectly.
That is why public preview quality is so often tied to technical metadata instead of the visible body content of a page.
og:titleog:descriptionog:imageog:urlThese values are what most crawlers read first when deciding how your page should appear in a feed, chat, or preview card.
WhatsApp is aggressive about caching. LinkedIn is stricter about validation and offers the Post Inspector workflow. X can rely on Open Graph, but also supports more granular Twitter Card tags.
If you are specifically fixing WhatsApp behavior, jump to the WhatsApp preview guide.
<!-- Standard Open Graph -->
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Amazing Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A brief summary of your page." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/social-visual.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yourdomain.com/page" />
<!-- X / Twitter -->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Amazing Title" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="A brief summary of your page." />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/social-visual.jpg" />Common problems
Usually caused by multiple competing image tags or by crawlers picking the first usable media they encounter.
Platforms often keep stale metadata for days, even after you deploy a correct fix.
Relative URLs, inaccessible files, or unsupported formats are still the most common causes.
Duplicate or malformed title metadata often leads platforms to guess instead of obeying your intent.
FAQ
You can attempt platform-specific logic, but a strong 1200x630 image that works everywhere is usually the safer and less fragile option.
That usually means the platform cache still holds the previous metadata. Use their debugging or inspector tools to force a refresh.
Most platforms truncate titles somewhere around 60 to 90 characters, so front-load the important words.
Stop touching code every time a campaign needs a new social card. Visualink sits between the destination page and the platform crawler.