Most missing previews are not a mystery design bug. The crawler never received a usable absolute og:image in the first HTML response, could not download the file, or is still showing a cached card. Work the checklist below in order before you redesign the artwork.
Why is my og:image not showing?
Usually the tag is missing from View Source, the URL is relative, the image returns an error to anonymous GET, or Facebook/LinkedIn/X still cache an older file. Confirm the live HTML and absolute https image URL, then rescrape each platform debugger. Client-side meta tags injected after load look fine in a browser and empty to a bot.
What size should an OG image be?
Use 1200×630 pixels (about 1.91:1) as the default for Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and generic Open Graph. Keep headlines inside a safe margin. See the social media image size guide for platform rows and the OG image size page for the generic canvas.
| Platform | Working default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1200 × 630 | Rescrape in Sharing Debugger after changes | |
| X (Twitter) | 1200 × 628 / 675 | Also set twitter:card |
| 1200 × 627 | Use Post Inspector | |
| WhatsApp / Slack / Discord / iMessage | 1200 × 630 | Same OG file usually works |
Figures on this site stay marked unverified until we re-check each vendor’s docs.
Checklist: fix a blank preview
- View Source on the live URL (not DevTools Elements after JS). Confirm
og:image,og:titleandog:descriptionexist. - Absolute https —
https://yoursite.com/og.png, not/og.png. - Open the image URL in a private window. It must return 200 without login.
- File weight — keep title cards well under a few megabytes; prefer PNG for flat type, JPG for photos.
- Rescrape — Facebook Sharing Debugger, LinkedIn Post Inspector, X Card Validator. Changing the file at the same path often does nothing until you force a scrape or change the path.
- robots / firewall — do not block Facebookexternalhit, Twitterbot, LinkedInBot, or similar on the page or image host.
Generate a clean file
Create a 1200×630 PNG in the OG Image Generator, host it on your domain, then verify the tags with the Link Preview Checker.
Last updated: September 21, 2026