Ever Wondered What are Open Graph Meta Tags for Social Media? Social media might be the reason your website or blog is getting traffic. If that's the case, you want to make sure you're doing everything you can to take advantage of that traffic. This means you need to know about Open Graph meta tags. Open Graph meta tags control how your page appears on social media sites. For example, if you share a link to your website on Facebook, Open Graph tags tell Facebook what image to display, what the title of your page is, and what the description should be. In other words, Open Graph meta tags help you control how your pages are represented when they're shared on social media. And that's important because, as we all know, first impressions are everything. If you want to make sure your pages look great when they're shared on social media, you need to use Open Graph meta tags. In this article, we'll show you how to do that and cover some other important details about these meta tags. What is the Open Graph Protocol? Open Graph is a protocol that was originally created by Facebook. It's a system of rules that helps social media sites understand how to display your pages when they're shared. The Open Graph protocol is a set of meta tags that you can add to your website's code. These tags give social media sites specific information about your pages, such as the title, description, and image. When you add Open Graph tags to your website, you're essentially telling social media sites how you want your pages to be displayed when they're shared. That way, you can control how your pages look on social media and make sure they're always representing your brand in the best way possible. How to Add Open Graph Meta Tags in WordPress Adding Open Graph meta tags in WordPress is easy. All you need to do is install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. Once you've done that, go to SEO → Social in your WordPress dashboard.From there, you'll see a list of social media sites. For each social media site, you can control the title, description, and image that will be displayed when your pages are shared.All you need to do is fill out the fields for each social media site and click the "Save Changes" button. That's it! Your Open Graph meta tags will now be added to your website.If you want more control over how your pages are shared on social media, we recommend using the Social Media and Sharing Icons plugin. This plugin lets you add social media sharing buttons to your website and gives you complete control over how your pages are shared on each social media site. What Are the Benefits? Open Graph meta tags give you complete control over how your pages are displayed when they're shared on social media. Without these tags, social media sites would have to guess what information to display. And we all know how well that usually goes. By adding Open Graph meta tags, you can make sure your pages always look their best when they're shared on social media. That way, you can control the message that's being conveyed and make sure your brand is always represented in the best light possible. On top of that, using Open Graph meta tags can also help you increase your click-through rates. In fact, one study found that pages with Open Graph meta tags are more likely to be shared on social media. And pages that are shared more often tend to get more traffic. So, if you want to increase your traffic from social media, using Open Graph meta tags is a good place to start. Are There Any Drawbacks? The only "drawback" to using Open Graph meta tags is that you need to add them to your website's code. If you're not comfortable doing that, you can always use a plugin like Yoast SEO or Social Media and Sharing Icons. As well as that, the top social media marketing companies in the United Kingdom, America, Australia, or anywhere else in the world will gladly complete this step for you as part of the social media services they offer. So, if you're new to this, there's nothing to worry about. Other than that, there are no real drawbacks to using these tags. How To Test Meta Tags If you want to make sure your Open Graph meta tags are working properly, you can use the Facebook Debugger tool. To use this tool, simply enter the URL of the page you want to test and click the "Debug" button. The debugger will then fetch the most recent version of your page and display any Open Graph meta tags that are present. If everything looks good, you should see the title, description, and image that you specified in the Yoast SEO plugin. If not, you can go back and edit your tags to make sure they're correct. Then, you can run the debugger tool again to double-check. How to Audit Meta Tags If you want to make sure your Open Graph meta tags are up to date, we recommend using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. This tool will crawl your website and look for any pages that don't have Open Graph meta tags. That way, you can be sure that every page on your website is properly optimized for social media. To use this tool, simply enter your website's URL and click the "Start" button. The tool will then crawl your website and look for any pages that are missing Open Graph meta tags. Once the crawl is complete, you can download the results as a CSV file. From there, you can go through and add Open Graph meta tags to any pages that are missing them. Which Meta Tags Should You Choose? When it comes to Open Graph meta tags, there are a few different options to choose from. The most important thing is to make sure you include the "og:" prefix before each tag. That way, social media sites will know that these are Open Graph tags. Other than that, you can pretty much choose any tags you want. However, we recommend using the following tags: og:title – This tag specifies the title of your page. og:type – This tag specifies the type of content on your page. For example, you can use "article" for blog posts or "product" for ecommerce pages. og:image – This tag specifies the image that will be displayed when your page is shared on social media. og:url – This tag specifies the URL of your page. og:description – This tag specifies the description of your page. This is what will be displayed under your title when your page is shared on social media. These are just a few of the most common Open Graph meta tags. For a complete list of tags, you can check out the official Open Graph website. When Can You Expect Results? It's important to note that using Open Graph meta tags doesn't guarantee results. However, it is a good way to increase your chances of getting more traffic from social media. If you want to see results, we recommend adding these tags to your website and then monitoring your social media traffic over time. You should see a gradual increase in traffic as more people share your content on social media. Of course, results will vary depending on the kind of website you have and the type of content you produce. But if you're not seeing any results after a few months, it might be time to consider other options. Can Meta Tags Only Be Used on Facebook? Open Graph meta tags were originally designed for Facebook. However, these days, they're used by a variety of social media sites. In addition to Facebook, Open Graph tags are also compatible with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. So, if you're active on any of these platforms, you can use these tags to help your content get shared more often. If your online presence extends to multiple platforms, you may be wondering where to start. It's best to focus on the social media site that drives the most traffic to your website. Once you've added Open Graph tags to your website, you can move on to other platforms. Additionally, you can also use Open Graph tags to optimize your content for social media sharing. This can be a great way to increase traffic and engagement. Start with your most popular platform, in this case, too. Conclusion Open Graph meta tags are an important part of social media optimization. These tags give you complete control over how your pages are displayed when they're shared on social media. Without these tags, social media sites would have to guess what information to display. And we all know how well that usually goes. So, to give your accounts more control and drive more traffic, make sure to start using meta tags.
