probeo

How to add the required Open Graph tags that are missing from this page?

og-required-tags-missing page

The issue

A page shared without og:image shows up as a text-only link or with whatever image the platform picks, and without og:description it shows whatever text the platform picks, or none. The card is the first thing anyone sees of the page in a feed or a chat, and it is the weakest version of it. Without og:locale, the page is declared as US English, whatever language it is in.

The cause is that these tags were never added to the page’s <head>, or a template adds them only to some page types. Each platform fills the gaps its own way, so the same link can look different everywhere it is shared.

Scope

Each page is checked on its own, once it declares at least one og: property. A page with no Open Graph tags at all is not reported for missing ones. A shared template usually decides these tags, so one fix often covers many pages.

How to check you have it

  • In probeo: the page reports Missing og:image or Missing og:description, as errors. Probeo doesn’t check og:locale.
  • By hand: view the page source and search for og:image, og:description and og:locale in the <head>.
  • With a tool: paste the URL into Facebook’s Sharing Debugger or LinkedIn’s Post Inspector. Each shows the tags it found and the preview it builds.

The fix

Add each missing tag to the page’s <head> with a value written for that page.

For og:image, use an absolute HTTPS URL to an image that represents the page. For og:description, write a sentence or two about this page, not the site. For og:locale, use the language_TERRITORY form of the page’s language, such as en_GB or de_DE.

Done when: all three tags are in the <head> with page-specific values, and the check above comes back clean.

Do not

  • Do not use a placeholder or an empty string for og:description.
  • Do not use a relative URL for og:image.
  • Do not leave out og:locale on a page that isn’t in US English.
  • Do not copy one site-wide description onto every page.

FAQ

If og:description is missing but meta description exists, is the page still affected?

Yes. Some platforms fall back to the meta description and others take text from the page, and none of them documents its fallback as a promise. Declaring og:description makes every platform show the same text.

Does og:image need to be unique per page, or can the same image be used site-wide?

A site-wide default is better than no image, but when every link from a site shows the same picture, nobody can tell the pages apart. Use a default as the fallback, and give the pages that get shared most their own image.

What happens when og:locale is missing on an English-language page?

The Open Graph protocol’s default is en_US, so a US English page loses nothing. A page in British English or any other language is declared as US English until it says otherwise.

Can og:description be longer than the meta description?

Yes. Probeo warns when og:description runs past 300 characters. Below that, write it for the share card rather than for a search result, and expect platforms to cut it shorter in some layouts.

Should og:image point to the same image used in the page content?

Not necessarily. Share cards are landscape, and an image cropped for the page may not survive the card’s crop. Use the image that represents the page best at card size, whether or not it appears in the body.

Is this violation separate from the og:image HTTPS and og:locale format violations?

Yes. This one covers tags that are absent. An og:image that is present but not on HTTPS, and an og:locale that is present but wrong, each have their own page.

Which product detects this

Probeo checks this on every page of your site as part of Site Clarity. This page explains one instance; the product tells you every page that has it.