No share image

Why it matters

The image is most of a link preview: on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack and Discord a shared link without og:image is a line of grey text that people scroll past, where one with an image is a card that fills the width of the feed. It is one of the four properties the Open Graph protocol requires, and LinkedIn lists it as required for a preview. Some networks guess an image from the page instead, and the guess is usually a logo fragment or an advert.

Sources: The Open Graph protocol; Facebook: images in link shares; LinkedIn: make your website shareable.

How to fix it

Make an image of 1200×630 pixels (JPEG or PNG, under 600 KB) with the page's subject or your brand on it, upload it, and add inside <head>, with the full address:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.example.com/share.png" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="A three-tier wedding cake with fresh flowers" />

One good image for the whole site is far better than none; a different one per page is better still.

Examples

These are the rule's own test pages, and what it says about each. They are run on every change to the rule book.

<meta property="og:image" content="">
<img src="/logo.png" alt="Logo">

ErrorThe page has no og:image, so every network shows its link as bare text instead of a card.

fail-none

<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.example.com/share.png">

WarningThe page has a twitter:image but no og:image, so only X shows an image; Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack and Discord show a bare link.

fail-twitter-only

<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.example.com/share.png">

PassedThe page has a share image (og:image).

pass-og-image

<meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://www.example.com/share.png">

PassedThe page has a share image (og:image).

pass-secure-url