Websites · Glossary
What is an OG image?
An OG image, short for Open Graph image, is the picture that appears in the preview card when a link to a page is shared on social media, in messaging apps or in some chat tools. It is set by an og:image tag in the page head, and a clear image at about 1200 by 630 pixels makes the shared link far more likely to be noticed and tapped.
Open Graph is a set of tags first defined by Facebook and now read by most platforms that build link previews. The image is the part people notice first.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
3 min read · Published
How link previews are built
When a link is pasted, the platform fetches the page and reads tags in its head: og:title, og:description, og:image and og:site_name, plus Twitter card tags for X. It builds a card from them. Without an image tag, platforms show a plain text link or guess an image from the page, often badly.
What size and content work
About 1200 by 630 pixels, a ratio close to 1.91 to 1, keeps the image sharp on large cards. Keep the important part in the centre, since some apps crop to a square. A photo of your place or product with your name, or your logo on a plain background, reads better than a busy collage.
Site image versus page image
A site wide share image is a sensible default. Pages that are shared on their own, such as a product, an event or an article, deserve their own image showing that thing. Platforms use the image set on the exact page that was shared.
Common mistakes
No image at all, an image so large that platforms time out fetching it, important text near the edges where it gets cropped, and expecting a change to appear immediately: platforms cache previews, and some offer a debugger tool to refresh them.
Where it shows up in OneCraft
The Search and sharing card in site settings has a Share image picker, best at 1200 by 630, with a preview as a shared link. Published pages carry Open Graph and Twitter card tags, and each page can override the site image with its own share image, so a page shared on its own can show its own picture.
Questions people ask
What size should an OG image be?
Use about 1200 by 630 pixels, which displays sharply on large preview cards and scales down cleanly. Keep the file a reasonable size so platforms fetch it quickly, and keep important content in the centre in case an app crops the edges or shows a square version.
Why does my shared link show the wrong image?
Platforms cache previews, so an old image can stick after you change it. Make sure the new image is published on the page, then use the platform link debugging tool, where available, to fetch the page again. Messaging apps may keep old previews in existing chats.
Does an OG image help SEO?
Not directly; search engines do not rank pages on Open Graph tags. A good share image makes links more clickable when people share them, which brings visitors and, over time, can earn links and mentions that do matter for search.
Can each page have a different share image?
Yes, and pages people share on their own should. A product, event or blog style page with its own image gets a preview that shows exactly what the link is about. Pages without their own image fall back to the site wide one.
Should the OG image have text on it?
A little text, such as your business name or the offer, can help, but keep it large and short, because previews often appear small on phones. The title and description already appear as text in the card, so the image does not need to repeat them.
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Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .