Crawlie
Home Free tools Site audit Blog About Contact
Run free audit
December 31, 2025

# Does Open Graph Tags Still Matter in 2026?

Short answer: yes, but not for the reason it used to.

The old thinking was: Leaving Open Graph tags entirely unset and letting each platform guess a preview, which often picks an irrelevant image or a truncated auto-generated description. That framing is dated — search engines have gotten much better at figuring things out without hand-holding. But 'search engines can cope without it' isn't the same as 'it doesn't matter.'

What actually changed is who benefits. Set a dedicated `og:image` sized correctly per platform (1200Ã—630 is a safe general default) rather than letting the platform guess from the first image on the page. That's less about appeasing an algorithm and more about not wasting the crawl/attention you already have.

The practical test isn't whether it's trendy — it's whether skipping it creates work for someone else later (a crawler, a future you, a user). By that test, Open Graph tags still earns its place.

Same question, different tool: does UTM tracking parameters still matter?

Open Graph Preview Tool either way — checking takes longer to read about than to do.

Try Open Graph Preview Tool yourself

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.

Open Open Graph Preview Tool →
More on Open Graph tags
Open Graph Preview Tool vs. Doing It by Hand: Is It Worth Switching?
A practical look at what Open Graph Preview Tool actually saves you over doing Open Graph tags manually, and when manual still makes sense.
The Open Graph Tags Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish
A short, practical checklist for Open Graph tags — the things worth checking every time, not just the first time.
Open Graph Tags FAQ: Questions People Actually Ask
Straight answers to the questions that come up most often about Open Graph tags.
Audits & reports▸
Full SEO audit Competitor comparison
Technical SEO▸
Bulk URL indexability checker Robots.txt generator Sitemap generator Schema generator Redirect checker Broken link checker Backlink checker Image URL checker Internal link suggestion tool Keyword cannibalization checker Search intent cluster tool eCommerce keyword research tool Programmatic SEO page generator
Product & e-commerce feeds▸
Multi-channel feed generator Google Merchant feed generator Facebook product feed generator Pinterest product feed generator Google product category finder Competitor product research Merchant feed validator GTIN / EAN / UPC validator Product title optimizer SEO product description generator Slug generator Keyword density
Content & AI search▸
AI crawler &amp; llms.txt checker Readability counter Blog topic generator Google Discover headline generator AI Overview optimizer GEO checker Featured snippet optimizer Topical coverage calculator Meta tag generator
Sharing & distribution▸
SERP preview Open Graph preview UTM builder WhatsApp link generator RSS feed generator
No tools match your search.