How to fix a broken link preview

If your links share as a bare URL, or a blank grey rectangle, the cause is almost always one of three things: no Open Graph tags at all, an og:image that no longer exists, or an image the platform will not accept. They look identical when you paste the link, and they need different fixes.

Work out which one you have

View source on the page and search for og:. What you find decides everything after this.

• Nothing. The platform is falling back to whatever it can scrape — usually the title tag and no image. Add the tags below.
• Tags, but no og:image. You get a small text card instead of the large image one. This is the most common state on sites built before previews mattered.
• An og:image that is there. Then open that URL directly in a browser. If it 404s, you have found it.

The dead image is the one nobody catches

An og:image pointing at a file that no longer exists is the failure worth knowing about, because the person who broke it is the last person who will see it broken.

Every platform caches the preview it scraped the first time. You share your page, see the card you have always seen, and conclude it works. Everyone who shares it after the image moved gets a blank rectangle. Nothing in your analytics records a share that looked broken, so the feedback never arrives.

It happens on ordinary maintenance: a CMS upgrade renames the uploads folder, a CDN path changes, a marketing image gets tidied away, a staging URL was left in the tag and staging was decommissioned. The page still works. Only the preview is gone.

Docket fetches the og:image URL and reports a dead one at MEDIUM — higher than a missing tag, because a missing tag is a card you never had and a dead image is one you think you have.

The tags to add

<meta property="og:title" content="The headline you want shared">
<meta property="og:description" content="One or two sentences.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/share.png">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/this-page/">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">

Four things that decide whether it works:

• The image URL must be absolute. /share.png is a common and total failure — the scraper is not on your site and cannot resolve it.
• It must be reachable without a login or a cookie. Scrapers are not signed in. An image behind auth is a dead image as far as the preview is concerned.
• Use around 1200×630. Much smaller and platforms fall back to the small card; the large card is the whole point.
• Serve it over https. An http image on an https page is mixed content, which is a separate finding and a separate problem.

The Twitter/X card tag is worth including even though X reads Open Graph as a fallback, because summary_large_image is what turns the small card into the large one. Without it you get the small card on a site that already has everything it needs for the large one.

Check it before you need it

Each platform has a debugger that re-scrapes on demand — that is what to use after a fix, because your own paste test will keep showing you the cached card. If you have a Docket audit to hand, the social lane already fetched the image and told you whether it resolved.

Why this is an SEO page and not a design one

Open Graph tags are not a ranking signal, and anyone telling you they are is guessing. They decide whether a link that somebody chose to share arrives looking like something worth clicking. The traffic is already earned at that point; the preview decides how much of it survives the trip.

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Common questions

Why does my link preview show no image?

Either the page has no og:image tag, or it has one pointing at a file that no longer exists, or the image is unreachable to a scraper — a relative URL, something behind a login, or an http image on an https page. Open the og:image URL directly in a browser to tell which.

Why do I still see the old preview after fixing it?

Because platforms cache the preview they scraped the first time. The person who broke it is the last person to see it broken. Use the platform's own debugger to force a re-scrape rather than pasting the link again yourself.

Do Open Graph tags help SEO rankings?

No, and anyone saying otherwise is guessing. They decide whether a link somebody already chose to share arrives looking worth clicking. The traffic is earned before the preview is involved.

What size should an og:image be?

Around 1200x630 pixels, served over https at an absolute URL that needs no login. Much smaller and platforms fall back to the small text card, which defeats the point of adding the image.