Sharing content via social networking sites offers opportunities for online stores and blog sites.
You may have shared content and have probably wondered why some links shared on social media platforms look weird.
Social media platforms provide opportunities for content providers to present their brands to their followers.
Sometimes, social media platforms do not pull out relevant facts to support the content(s) shared.
Let’s discover quickly how Open Graph Meta tags work, the importance of good social media tags and some tips for achieving effectiveness in their use.
We will also look at how to improve and make your content more shareable and noticeable on social media. This will improve traffic to your website content and create great reviews for your posts.
What are Open Graph Meta Tags?
Open Graph meta tags are little codes that control URL displays that are shared on social media. They are also known as social meta tags.
Open Graph (OG) tags are mostly indicated by og: which are found in the head section of a webpage. They are used by Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites.
OG tags assist viewers to click right. This does not make people ignore a post rather than share the same.
Optimizing your website content is one of the best ways to make your content appealing to your audience. It ultimately increases the clicks on your content.
You most likely will click on a post if it looks like this….
We will highlight the importance and benefits of Open Graph Meta tags and discuss how to set them up, in this post.
Importance of Open Graph Meta Tags
1. Open graph meta tags make people understand what the content is about at a glance.
2. Open graph meta tags help you have much more control over what is received from your social media links.
3. Open graph meta tags boost current content strategy significantly.
4. Open graph meta tags make your posts or feeds on social media more attractive and shareable. This promotes more traffic and visibility for your brand.
5. Your creativity is expected in open graph meta tags as default titles and descriptions are good for search engines instead of social media.
Critical Open Graph Tags: Definition
Facebook defines up to 17 OG tags out of which you need just a few to create attention-grabbing posts.
The following are samples of such:
- og: title – This tag is what defines the title of the page.
- og:url – This defines the permanent canonical URL of the shared page without parameters.
- og:description – this describes the shared page that is different from the og:title
- og:image – This is the URL of the image associated with the shared page.
How To Add Open Graph Meta Tags To Websites
Open graph meta tags are placed within a head tag at the top of a website page. This has to be added manually and does not require technical expertise. You may also request your web developer to add open graph tags.
You can customize OG images page by page: Go to Page settings > Social image > upload. For other OG tags, go to Page settings > Advanced > Page Header Code Injection.
Alternatively, you can integrate the Facebook OG tags extension and manage it easily from the admin section.
You can also add OG title, OG description and OG image for most shared pages like brand products and blog posts.
Tips for Developing Social Meta Tags
The reason for using social meta tags is to enable you to have control over the way posts or contents are displayed in the feed, rather than letting social media platforms create descriptions and titles for your content.
Twitter card tags and OG tags can be used as a testing ground for social media marketing.
Social media tags modify title ideas by using them as headlines in content created. They also make display images and texts appeal to your audience.
How To Edit Social Media Meta Tags In Your Website’s CMS
Well, it is all good hat we have a basic understanding of the different types of social media tags that are currently in use as well as their effects on your website.
So, the next in line, and obviously your next question will be how can I edit the social media meta tags on the CMS of my website or how can I even locate the on my website.
Well, using WordPress CMS which is obviously the most common and world acclaimed number one CMS, we’ll demonstrate how you can easily locate and edit your social media meta tags.
However, worthy of mention at this point is the fact that some search engine optimization plugins like All in One SEO, Rank Math, Yoast SEO, Metatags.co, and other similar SEO plugins will be very helpful in helping you locate and edit your social media meta tags.
Interestingly, all these renowned SEO plugins will give you a seamless access to changing your social media meta tags, especially for popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Amazingly, this can be done independent of each other.
Well, in case you are using Rank Math, the guide below show help you in editing your social media metal tags without breaking a sweat.
How to Locate social media tags on Rank Math
1. On your Rank Math dashboard, click on “SEO” on the tab
2. Click “Social” on the next tab that shows
3. Select the social media platform you wish to edit.
4. Click on “Preview and edit social media” button. Remember that you can always see how your changes will impact your social media page since Rank Math has this feature
Since you want to edit your Facebook Meta tags
5. First, you’ll see a preview of your current Facebook posts below and then you can move down to edit the social media meta tag for Facebook there to your taste.
Our in-depth reviews on RankMath will give you more helpful information, check it out here!
How to Use Social sites Meta Tags in Plugins
Some plugins make it possible to implement social meta tags without having to write codes.
The essential items are:
- og:title, og:image, og:url and og:description (for Facebook)
- twitter:title, twitter:image, twitter:url and twitter:description (for Twitter).
You can do this by simply adding your ID or the URL to the social media profile of the publisher in the field on the plugin page. The rest will be done by the plugin.
Some plugin options include:
1. WPSSO (WordPress Social and Search Optimization)
This is a complete structured data plugin for WordPress. They help to present your content in the best possible way, no matter how URLs are posted or shared.
They provide structured data markup for Pinterest, Twitter cards, Facebook/ Open tags, mobile web browsers, and so on. They also optimize social sites and search engines.
2. WordPress SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
This is used by website owners to attract more traffic. It is clearly about developing a website that has optimized code and format that makes it easy for search engines to find your website. They are important because they are used in website rankings.
3. Twitter Cards
Twitter Cards are markups that can be added to HTML documents in the context of content to gain control over what is shown when URLs are shared on Twitter.
How to Validate Open Graph Tags
At the moment of adding OG tags to your website page, you need to ensure that they are correctly utilized.
This means that you will validate the OG tags to see how they are represented when displayed on social media. Sure, you don’t want to have your social media page looking half-baked.
Open Graph meta tags are native to Facebook. Therefore, you can begin with Facebook Sharing Debugger. Twitter and LinkedIn have validators also.
How to Test and Debug Open Graph Tags
You require the following tools:
They all tend to work the same way. These tools pull OG tags from the page and show how it looks when they are shared.
Testing helps to avoid troubles where OG meta tags are not displayed or correctly used.
Some Tips For Using OG Meta Tags Effectively And Efficiently
1. Make sure to set each meta tag appropriate
Each head contains meta tag features. They are pieces of code which give instructions on what is to be displayed as links. They include the title, description, image and more.
The default setting may be incorrect or not properly set. Effectiveness then begins when you set them properly.
To set each of the meta tags appropriately is not a huge or difficult task. It is even easier when you use these tags on a per-link basis.
First, pay attention to understanding what each property means. Afterwards, set each head as it suits you.
2. Make use of Open Graph Meta tags on a per-link basis
It is possible to set OG meta tags on a per-link basis. Despite this, setting the tags per link is best. This improves the information that is to be shared on social media, which makes it more specific.
Here are some tips for getting the most from them
· Adjust the properties on a social network basis. For instance, on Facebook, you may choose longer descriptions and bigger images than you can on Twitter.
· Take advantage of your follower’s interactions to determine future inclusion. This means that if your followers respond to precise and concise descriptions or larger images, you can use that to improve your OG subsequently.
There is a level of flexibility that comes with per-link OG tags. To enjoy its full advantage, it is recommended that you become acquainted with the different properties available.
· Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Whatever influences the period you spend on a particular website may also influence your potential customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Facebook OG tags?
They are the canonical URL for Facebook pages. This should be the undecorated URL, without session variables, user-identifying parameters, or counters.
How do you add a tag to an OG on Facebook?
The features are enabled by default. But you can follow the steps below to get it done
1. Log in to your WordPress website. Once you do this, you will be in your “Dashboard”.
2. Click on “SEO”.
3. Click on “Social”.
4. Click on the “Facebook” tab.
5. Toggle the “Add Open Graph meta data” switch.
6. Customize your OG tags.
7. Click on “Save changes”.
Is Open Graph still in use?
Yes. Open Graph is used by Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest, currently. Twitter Cards are in place of Open Graph for Twitter. They work the same way but with different identities.
How do you find Open Graph tags?
You can use the OG checker tool such as metatags.co The moment you navigate the website, enter the URL of the website you want the meta OG checker tool to check for you. As soon as it runs a check and finds the tags, it will display them.
Conclusion - Expert Guide to Open Graph Meta Tags
Open graph meta tags, otherwise known as social meta tags are essential for your presence on social media.
You need to employ means to fully engage your audience when you share content on social media. With correct and appropriate OG meta tags, you can make sure that your content is appealing.
You can equally rest assured that your follower or readers are properly engaged. This can also bring more traffic to your site.
This content was created by socialweb.marketing. If you see this on another site, it has been stolen.
In this post, we have mostly communicated what Open Graph meta tags are and how to set them up. I hope you are familiar with OG tags and Twitter Cards now.
Preview, Edit and Build Your Websites’ Metatags Now
Knowing whether your website has the right meta tags and editing same to give the best result is the first step to building and running a website that will rank with huge traffic.
With our unique, responsive and highly effective OG checker tool, you can have full control of your website’s metatags with just a few clicks.
Are you ready to put your website ahead of your competitors using a nice-looking and sharable links on various social media platforms? If yes, kindly click here to get started with our all-in-one OG checker tool.
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