Recommended social tags for HTML head

Webdev, HTML, Browser · Jan 22, 2023

Social media play an important role to any content's success. To ensure your content is properly shared on social media, you should include some essential tags in your <head> element:

<head>
  <meta property="og:title" content="Page Title">
  <meta property="og:description" content="Page description. No longer than 155 characters.">
  <meta property="og:image" content="https://samplesite.com/image.jpg">
  <meta property="og:site_name" content="Sample Site">
  <meta property="og:url" content="https://samplesite.com/page.html">
  <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
  <meta name="twitter:title" content="Page Title">
  <meta name="twitter:description" content="Page description. No longer than 155 characters.">
  <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://samplesite.com/image.jpg">
  <meta name="twitter:site" content="@samplesite">
</head>

The above snippet contains OpenGraph and Twitter tags. OpenGraph tags are used by Facebook and other social media platforms to display a preview of the page when it's shared. Similarly, Twitter uses Twitter tags for the same information. Here's a breakdown of each one:

  • The og:title and twitter:title meta tags are used to display the page's title in the preview.
  • The og:description and twitter:description meta tags are used to display a short description of the page in the preview.
  • The og:image and twitter:image meta tags are used to display an image in the preview.
  • The og:site_name meta tag is used to display the name of the site in the preview.
  • The og:url meta tag is used to display the URL of the page in the preview.
  • The twitter:card meta tag is used to display a preview of the page when it's shared. Available values are summary, summary_large_image, app and player.
  • The twitter:site meta tag is used to display the Twitter handle of the site in the preview.

Written by Angelos Chalaris

I'm Angelos Chalaris, a JavaScript software engineer, based in Athens, Greece. The best snippets from my coding adventures are published here to help others learn to code.

If you want to keep in touch, follow me on GitHub or Twitter.

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