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You share your website link and... nothing. No image, no title. Don't blame LinkedIn. The problem lies in your code, but it's easy to fix.
Instead of a beautiful, engaging image, a catchy title, and a description, only a raw link appears. Not only does this look unprofessional, but it also ruins your chances of getting clicks. This extremely frustrating problem isn't a bug in LinkedIn or Facebook. The culprit is invisible and hides directly in your website's code: you're missing Open Graph (OG) tags.
What is the Open Graph protocol?
Originally created by Facebook (Meta), Open Graph is a protocol that allows any web page to become a “rich object” in a social graph.
In simpler terms, it consists of a few lines of code in the <head> section of your site that tell social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, X, etc.) what information to display when a link is shared.
These tags control:
- The preview image (og:image)
- The title (og:title)
- The description (og:description)
Without these instructions, the platform (such as LinkedIn) tries to “guess” what to show. Often, it finds nothing and simply displays the raw URL, as in our video. Controlling these tags is therefore essential for your marketing and brand image.
The visual impact: Before vs. After
The best way to understand is to see it in action. A link without Open Graph tags is ignored. A link with Open Graph tags catches the eye, inspires confidence, and encourages action.
Our video below perfectly illustrates this problem and its solution in less than a minute.
How can you fix the problem on your site?
The good news is that the fix is often simple. The method depends on the technology your site is built on.
Step 1: Diagnose the problem
Before changing anything, confirm the problem using the official tools:
- For LinkedIn: Use the Post Inspector.
- For Facebook/Instagram: Use the Sharing Debugger.
Copy your page's URL into these tools. They will show you a preview as they "see" it and list any missing or incorrect tags (for example, “og:image is not set”).
Step 2: Add the tags (the solution)
Here, the road splits in two, depending on whether you use a CMS or a custom-coded site. This is also a key factor when deciding which web technology to choose for your project.
Solution A: For WordPress sites
If your site runs on WordPress, you don't need to touch the code. The problem can be solved with an SEO plugin.
- Install a plugin such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math.
- Go to the page or article that is causing problems.
- In the plugin settings (often at the bottom of the editor), find the Social or Facebook tab.
- Here, you can manually set: The Open Graph Title, The Open Graph Description, and, most importantly, The Open Graph Image.
If you don't fill anything in, most SEO plugins will use your default SEO title and meta description. That's fine, but setting a specific image for social sharing is always better.
Solution B: For custom code sites (Symfony, Laravel, PHP, Python, etc.)
If your site is custom-developed (for example, with Symfony), you must add the tags directly to your page template, inside the <head> tag.
The four essential tags to add are:
<head>
<meta property="og:title" content="The Catchy Title of Your Page" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A concise description (max 1-2 sentences) that makes people want to click." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.your-site.ch/images/social-overview.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.your-site.ch/your-exact-page" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Your Company Name" />
</head>Image warning: The og:image must be an absolute URL (starting with https://...) and ideally in 1.91:1 format (approximately 1200 x 630 pixels) to display perfectly.
Step 3: Clear your caches!
You've corrected everything, but the preview is still incorrect?
Don't panic. It's the cache's fault. And there are two to check:
- Your own site's cache: If you use a performance plugin (such as WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, etc.) or server-side caching, your site may still be serving the old version of the page (without the OG tags) to inspection robots.
Solution: Clear your WordPress site or application cache before doing anything else. - The social media cache: Once you are sure that your site is serving the new version, you need to clear the platform's cache. LinkedIn and Facebook store the first (incorrect) version of your link to save time.
Solution: Simply return to the Post Inspector (LinkedIn) or Sharing Debugger (Facebook) and click on the “Scrape again” or “Re-inspect” button. This forces the platform to ignore its cache and retrieve your brand new tags.
A technical detail with a major marketing impact
Ignoring Open Graph tags is a bit like neglecting your storefront. It's a technical detail that has a direct impact on your marketing performance. This is especially true if your website is your primary lead generation tool, much more so than LinkedIn alone.
By taking five minutes to configure these tags, you regain control of your brand image, improve your credibility, and dramatically increase your click-through rate. This is one of the many points we check during a technical audit, along with your site's loading speed.
At CodeDev, we are convinced that digital performance lies in these details.
Need an audit or acceleration for your site?
→ Let’s talk about your goals
→ Or contact us: info@codedev.ch
