Open Graph tags are <meta property="og:..."> elements in your HTML <head> that tell social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Slack, iMessage) how to display your link when someone shares it. The essential four: og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url.
Without OG tags, platforms guess — and they guess badly. They might pull a random image from your page (or no image), truncate your page title awkwardly, or show a generic description. A well-crafted OG preview with a custom 1200x630 image gets dramatically more clicks than a bare URL with no preview. If people share your landing page (investors, team members, prospects forwarding to decision-makers), this matters more than you think.
OG tag essentials for landing pages
og:image is the most impactful tag. Create a dedicated 1200x630px image — not just your logo on a white background. Include your headline, a visual element, and your brand. This is a mini-billboard that appears in every share. og:title can differ from your <title> tag — optimize it for social context rather than search context (shorter, punchier, more curiosity-driven).
Don't forget Twitter/X-specific tags (twitter:card, twitter:image) — they override OG tags on that platform. Set twitter:card to "summary_large_image" for the full-width image preview. Test your OG tags using Facebook's Sharing Debugger and Twitter's Card Validator before launch. Cached previews from old tags persist until you explicitly clear them.