Open Graph: what it is and how to implement it

As SEOs, using and optimizing structured data for Google is essential, but it is also highly recommended to work on web data markup for social networks. Today we talk about Open Graph, the most important one — and nowadays its use has become essential.

What is Open Graph

Open Graph (OG) is a type of markup created by Meta to define how web content appears when shared on social networks.

Today, besides the entire Meta ecosystem (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), it is also used by Linkedin, Discord and many other platforms, becoming a standard and key reference for social data markup, much like Schema is for Rich Snippets.

Main Open Graph tags

The list is constantly evolving as web content and markup needs change. These are the most basic ones, although many more tags exist:

• og:title – The title of your content. Usually the same as your SEO meta title.
• og:type – The type of content: product page, blog post, etc. Depending on the type, you may need additional details.
• og:image – The main preview image.
• og:url – The canonical URL.
• og:video – Used to mark video content.
• og:site_name – The website or brand name.
• og:description – A short preview description, usually aligned with the SEO meta-description.
• og:locale – The language of the content.

How to implement Open Graph tags

For proper reading, these must be placed inside the HTML head. You can implement them:

• manually in the code
• via Tag Manager
• using a CMS like Wordpress, where plugins such as RankMath or Yoast generate them automatically.

Here’s an example using our SEO service landing page:

In this case we use url, type, title, description and image. These cover the basics, but we could expand with site_name, locale, or even video. As with Schema for Rich Snippets, the more markup, the better.

How to validate Open Graph tags

There are several online tools to validate Open Graph markup, but we recommend Meta’s own Sharing Debugger (shared content debugger).

We tested it with our SEO guide, and it returned this:

Facebook shows the information it has stored: canonical URL, social signals and the preview of a potential share.

Note the extraction time: it tells us when the last crawl was performed. If changes were made, click “Scrape Again” and the crawler will fetch live data. We tested it by modifying the title, and it updated instantly:

Further down, the tool lists all detected og: attributes, helping you optimize or complete missing ones.

Twitter Cards, X’s alternative

Unfortunately, Open Graph is not the only markup system for social networks. Some platforms do not accept all OG parameters and use their own standards. This is the case for X, which uses its Twitter Cards.

Why Open Graph matters

Social networks are a key tool for content sharing. Users can share our website freely. Correctly implementing Open Graph ensures that shared content looks clear and attractive, helping increase CTR towards our site. Therefore, even if it’s not a classical SEO task, it is highly recommended for optimizing any web project.