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Marketing and SEO termsUpdated

Open Graph tags

Also called: og tags, og:image, Open Graph protocol, link preview tags

Definition

Open Graph tags are <meta> tags in a page's HTML head, such as og:title and og:image, that tell social networks which title, description and image to show when someone shares the page's link. LinkedIn uses them to build link previews.

The tags LinkedIn asks for

Each is written like <meta property="og:title" content="…">. For the image, LinkedIn's help center gives a minimum of 1200 × 627 pixels, a 1.91:1 ratio and a 5 MB maximum.

The tags come from the Open Graph protocol, so other networks and messaging apps read them too. Many CMSs and SEO plugins fill them in from the page title, excerpt and featured image; check what yours outputs before adding tags by hand, or you may end up with two sets.

TagHolds
og:titleThe headline shown on the preview card
og:descriptionThe short text under the title
og:imageThe preview image
og:urlThe page's preferred address

Fixing a wrong or outdated preview

LinkedIn also notes that URLs containing spaces can't be shared, and suggests waiting 48 hours after changing tags if a preview still looks old.

  1. 1

    Update the tags

    Change them on your page and publish.

  2. 2

    Run Post Inspector

    Paste the URL into LinkedIn's Post Inspector (linkedin.com/post-inspector). It shows how the link will look and refreshes LinkedIn's stored copy.

  3. 3

    Share again

    Only new posts pick up the change; earlier posts keep their old preview.

Common mistakes

  • An image below the minimum size, or text in the image that gets cropped.
  • An image URL that only works behind a login or firewall, so LinkedIn can't fetch it.
  • The same title and image on every page, so every share looks identical.
  • Leaving it to chance: without tags, LinkedIn may pull the wrong text or no image at all.
  • Testing only once; check again after redesigns or CMS updates that rewrite the page head.

Sources

Related terms

Structured data (JSON-LD)
Structured data is machine-readable markup that describes what a page is about, such as an article, product, event or organization, using a shared vocabulary like schema.org. Google recommends the JSON-LD format and uses structured data to understand pages and show rich results.
oEmbed
oEmbed is an open format that lets a website turn a pasted link into embedded content. The site asks the content provider's oEmbed endpoint about the URL and gets back data such as a title, a thumbnail and, for rich content, ready-made HTML.
LinkedIn article
A LinkedIn article is a long-form piece written in LinkedIn's article editor, with a title, a cover image and formatted body text. Members and Page admins can publish articles, and they appear in the author's Activity section alongside their posts.
LinkedIn Featured section
The Featured section is a part of a LinkedIn profile where a member pins hand-picked items near the top: posts they wrote, articles they published on LinkedIn, and external links, documents or images. It works as a curated showcase rather than a timeline.

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