Why Your Shared Links Look Broken (And How to Fix Them)

Here's something you might not know: billions of people use social media every day. When someone shares your website link, you only have a second to grab their attention. If your link shows up with no picture, a weird title, or a missing description, people will scroll right past it.

Social media is packed with stuff to look at. Your shared links need to stand out. The good news? Fixing this is easy and free.

What Are Open Graph Tags?

Open Graph (or OG) tags are little bits of code that tell social media sites how to show your link. Facebook created them in 2010, but now almost every platform uses them — LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Slack, Discord, and more.

Without these tags, your shared links look broken or boring. With them, your links show a nice picture, a clear title, and a description that makes people want to click.

The main Open Graph tags you need are:

• og:title - The headline that shows up (keep it short, under 60 letters)
• og:description - A quick summary of your page (under 160 letters)
• og:image - The picture that appears (make it at least 1200 pixels wide)
• og:url - The web address of your page
• og:type - What kind of page it is (website, article, product)

Why Do Broken Previews Matter?

Think about it: when you see a link with no picture or a weird broken preview, what do you think? Most people assume it's spam or that the website isn't trustworthy.

A good link preview is like a mini-ad for your page. It needs to look good and tell people what they'll find if they click.

How to Check Your Social Media Previews

Before you can fix your previews, you need to see what's actually showing up when people share your links.

The easiest way is to use our free Social Media Preview Tool. Just paste your website address and instantly see how your link looks on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and more. No signup needed!

Here are the most common problems you might find:

• No picture shows up (blank space or random image)
• Picture is too small (gets cut off)
• Title is too long (gets chopped in the middle)
• No description (the platform just guesses, usually wrong)
• Old information showing (platforms remember old versions)

How to Fix Your Open Graph Tags

Adding these tags is pretty simple. You put them in the "head" section of your HTML code, like this:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A short description under 160 letters" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/page" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />

For your picture, here's what works best:

• Make it at least 1200 x 630 pixels
• Keep the file size under 8MB
• Use bright, clear images that look good even when small

Don't Forget Twitter (X) Cards

X (formerly Twitter) has its own tags that work similar to Open Graph:

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Title" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Your description" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg" />

Using "summary_large_image" shows a big picture above your title, which usually gets more clicks.

Still Seeing the Old Preview?

Social media sites save (or "cache") your link preview. So if you fixed your tags but still see the old broken preview, you need to clear the cache:

• Facebook: Use Facebook's Sharing Debugger
• X/Twitter: Use the Card Validator
• LinkedIn: Use the Post Inspector

After clearing the cache, use our Social Media Preview Tool to make sure everything looks right before sharing.

Common Mistakes

Even after adding the right tags, these things can still cause problems:

1. Using short image links - Always use the full link starting with https://
2. Image on your computer only - Social sites can't see images on your local computer
3. Blocking robots - If you block Facebook's robot, it can't read your tags
4. Password-protected images - The picture must be viewable by anyone
5. Forgetting to update - When you change your page, update the tags too

Wrap Up

Your link previews are often the first thing people see about your website. You don't want that first look to be a broken, boring preview.

Take a few minutes to check your important pages with our free Social Media Preview Tool. Fix any problems, clear the old cached versions, and watch more people click your links. It's one of the easiest ways to make your website look better online.