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Social

OG image not showing when sharing a link

Social previews are unforgiving. One missing tag, one wrong dimension, or one cached image and your link looks broken everywhere it's shared.

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What this usually means

When your URL is shared on Slack, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Discord, Facebook, iMessage, or anywhere else that builds a preview card, no image appears, or the wrong, outdated image appears. Most of the time, the underlying cause is a missing or unreachable og:image.

Why it matters

A missing OG image dramatically lowers click-through rate on shared links, makes your brand look broken, and is one of the few SEO-adjacent fixes that has immediate, visible impact every time a link is shared.

Common causes
  • No og:image meta tag at all.
  • og:image is set, but the image URL returns 404, requires auth, or is on a host that blocks bots.
  • og:image is too small or oddly proportioned (e.g. 200x200) and platforms refuse to render it.
  • og:image is too large (over 5 MB) and platforms time out.
  • og:image points to a relative URL or a non-public CDN URL.
  • Twitter / X requires twitter:image and twitter:card and falls back to a small card without them.
  • Platforms (especially LinkedIn) cache previews aggressively and show an old image after you've fixed it.
How to diagnose it
  1. Open OG Preview and paste the page URL.
  2. Check the resolved title, description, image, and URL, these are the values platforms will use.
  3. Look at the image probe: status, content-type, and dimensions.
  4. Verify the image is reachable from the public internet, not behind a login or VPN.
  5. Confirm dimensions are at least 1200×630 (the recommended size for most platforms).
How to fix it
  1. 1

    Add og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url

    These four are the core of every preview. og:image is the highest-impact one to get right. Use absolute URLs.

  2. 2

    Use 1200x630 images

    1200×630 covers Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, and most other platforms. Avoid square or extreme aspect ratios for primary previews.

  3. 3

    Make the image publicly fetchable

    The image URL must return 200 with an image content-type, with no auth, no hot-link protection, and no bot blocking on the CDN.

  4. 4

    Add Twitter card tags

    twitter:card = summary_large_image, plus twitter:title, twitter:description, and twitter:image. Otherwise X falls back to the smallest card variant.

  5. 5

    Force a refresh on caching platforms

    After fixing tags, use platform debuggers (Facebook Sharing Debugger, LinkedIn Post Inspector, Twitter Card Validator) to force a cache refresh. Many platforms will keep showing the old preview for hours otherwise.

FAQ
Why does LinkedIn show an old image?

LinkedIn caches link previews very aggressively, sometimes for weeks. Use the LinkedIn Post Inspector to refresh the cache after you've updated your og:image.

What size should an OG image be?

1200x630 pixels is the safe default. It's recommended by Facebook and renders well on Slack, Discord, LinkedIn, and most chat platforms.

Do I need Twitter Card tags if I already have Open Graph?

Twitter falls back to OG tags, but it picks a smaller card layout if you don't explicitly set twitter:card. Add twitter:card = summary_large_image to get the large preview on X.

Related fixes

Ready to diagnose your URL?

OG Preview runs the exact checks discussed above.

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