What is an Open Graph and how does it help while navigating the online world?
In the online world, Open Graph is a protocol that allows web pages to become rich objects in social media sharing.
The main purpose of Open Graph is to enable website developers to better control how their website's content appears when it is shared on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
The history of Open Graph goes back to 2010 when Facebook introduced this tool. The idea of Facebook open graph protocol is to achieve integration between your website and Facebook. When you place Open Graph meta tags into the content of your Facebook page, you guarantee that these tags will help you to guide through the content when you share. To keep it simple, open graph helps to control what content shows when you share the post through Facebook.
When someone shares a URL on social media, Open Graph metadata provides information that social media platforms can use to generate a rich preview of the shared content. This preview typically includes a title, description, and image from the shared web page. By providing Open Graph metadata, website developers can ensure that the shared content is displayed in the best possible way across social media platforms.
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Open Graph metadata can also include additional information, such as video and audio assets, product information, and location data. This enables developers to create more engaging and informative previews, improving the likelihood that users will click on shared content.
Open Graph is an important protocol for website developers who want to ensure that their content is presented in the best possible way when shared across social media platforms.
Open Graph also enables social media platforms to provide additional functionality for shared content. For example, when a website includes Open Graph metadata for a video, social media platforms can use this information to display a play button on the shared preview, enabling users to play the video directly within the social media platform.
Facebook removed access to most of the social graph data in 2015. Why? For Giving Your Friends’ Data To Apps >>>
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It was always kind of shady that Facebook let you volunteer your friends’ status updates, check-ins, location, interests and more to third-party apps. While this let developers build powerful, personalized products, the privacy concerns led Facebook to announce at F8 2014 that it would shut down the Friends data API in a year. Now that time has come, with the forced migration to Graph API v2.0 leading to the friends’ data API shutting down, and a few other changes happening on April 30, 2014.
One answer to the question of how to gain more visibility lies within Open Graph tags. What is Open Graph, you might ask? It's a potent tool that shapes the way your website's link appears on social media, showcasing crucial aspects of your webpage to potential viewers. Harnessing the power of Open Graph can elevate your brand, garner more views, and simplify content sharing in today's fast-paced digital marketing environment.
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So the next question is: How do they integrate Open Graph markers into (example) WordPress?
What (the hack) is Open Graph?
Open Graph, at its core, is a technology protocol developed by Facebook that's designed to unify the use of metadata within a webpage.
This innovative tool allows web content to be presented in a rich, engaging manner when shared on social media platforms.
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But what is Open Graph's function in detail?
When you share a webpage on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, Open Graph steps in, enabling these platforms to showcase the page's title, description, and image in the feed.
This enhanced preview piques the interest of social media users, encouraging more clicks and visits to your website.
That might not be exciting to the general public. Zuck’s keynote lacked the flare and emotion of the last f8 in 2011 like Timeline launched. Rather than muddy the developer conference with consumer launches, the message was clear. Facebook has grown, and it’s ready to earn developers’ trust.
But Open Graph doesn't stop at displaying titles, images, and descriptions. It can specify the type of content being shared, such as a blog post, a product page, or a video, aiding social media platforms in understanding the shared content and presenting it in the most appealing way possible.
Zuckerberg said Facebook wants to be a “cross-platform platform” that rides across iOS, Android, Windows Phone, the web, and more. That’s a convenient framing of the fact that Facebook doesn’t own a mobile operating system.
Open Graph can even deliver intricate details, such as the length of a video, creating a rich representation of each individual page on the internet. With Open Graph, every webpage comes to life in the social media realm, showcasing the essential highlights of your content to potential viewers.
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Open Graph Tags
Open Graph tags are integral elements of the Open Graph protocol, guiding the way your content is presented on social media platforms.
They are the way to implement Open Graph on your website. Technically, they're meta tags that are rendered in the <head> section of your web page's source code. Let's take a detailed look at some of these tags:
1. og:type
The og:type tag determines the category of your content. Whether your page features an article, music, video, or any other content, this tag helps to represent it correctly.
<meta property="og:type" content="music.song" />
Best Practice: Specify the type clearly. For instance, use "music.song" for a single song or "music.album" for an album. If not specified, the default is "website."
2. og:url
The og:url tag specifies the URL of your page, acting as its unique identifier. Any change in this URL can disrupt the shared link on social networks.
<meta property="og:url" content="https://your-website.com" />
Best Practice: Use simple, concise URLs, and stick to the canonical URL to consolidate metrics across all shared posts with the same URL.
3. og:title
The og:title tag sets the title of your webpage.
<meta property="og:title" content="Your intriguing title here" />
Best Practice: Keep your title under 60 characters to avoid truncation. Make it enticing and eye-catching to attract clicks.
4. og:description
The og:description tag provides a concise overview of your content.
<meta property="og:description" content="Your succinct description here." />
Best Practice: Aim for a description under 200 characters to prevent truncation. Make it engaging and accurate to draw in viewers.
5. og:image
The og:image tag specifies the image to be displayed with your content.
<meta property="og:image" content="your-image-url.png" />
Best Practice: Maintain an optimal image size of 1200 x 628 pixels for social media sharing (minimum 200 x 200 pixels). Acceptable formats include JPEG, GIF, or PNG, and the image size should not exceed 5MB.
6. og:site_name
The og:site_name tag represents the name of your website.
<meta property="og:site_name" content="your-website-name" />
Best Practice: While not crucial, this tag adds context, indicating that your content is part of a larger website or domain.
7. og:video
The og:video tag presents the URL to a video on your webpage.
<meta property="og:video" content="your-video-url.mp4" />
Best Practice: Optimize the appearance of your videos by using additional tags like og:video:width and og:video:height.
8. og:locale
The og:locale tag defines the language of your content.
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" />
Best Practice: Use this tag if your content is in a language other than American English. It's particularly useful for multi-language websites.
While Facebook lists 17 Open Graph tags in their official documentation, only four are required: og:title, og:type, og:image, and og:url. You can further enhance your content's appearance and functionality with optional tags like og:audio, og:description, and og:site-name.
Other Forms of Open Graph - Branching Out to Twitter Cards
Just like Open Graph transformed the way content appears on platforms like Facebook, Twitter Cards have revolutionized how link previews appear in tweets. They follow a similar mechanism, offering customizable previews for shared URLs, which includes a title and main image.
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Twitter Cards and Open Graph can work in tandem. While Twitter has its own system of tags, it does not disregard Open Graph tags. Instead, it prioritizes its own system but falls back to Open Graph if Twitter-specific tags aren't available. It's important to note, though, that Twitter Cards do have a specific requirement: images should ideally be 1024 pixels by 512 pixels. You can use Twitter's Card validator to check the appearance of your Twitter Card.
Rather than cluttering its own site and apps with more ads, Facebook can monetize its deep database of volunteered personal and activity data with ads shown elsewhere.
Twitter's version of Open Graph has expanded into four different card types to boost user engagement:
- Summary Card: Features a title, description, and thumbnail image.
- Summary Card with Large Image: Similar to the Summary Card but showcases a larger featured image.
- App Card: Directs users to a mobile app download.
- Player Card: Displays video, audio, or other media.
The basic Twitter meta tags to consider include:
- twitter:card
- twitter:site
- twitter:creator
- twitter:title
- twitter:description
- twitter:image
An HTML example of a basic Twitter card might look like this:
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" />
When content equipped with these tags is shared on Twitter, it gets attached with a "Card" that provides a visually engaging snippet of your content, whether it's a large image, a direct app download, or a video.
What kind of metadata passes through Open Graph protocol? The bad and the worst ..
Open Graph metadata contains several types of data that social media platforms can use to generate a rich preview of shared web content.
Some of the most common types of data included in Open Graph metadata are:
- Title: The title of the web page being shared.
- Description: A brief description of the content on the web page. This description should be concise and informative, as it will be displayed alongside the preview image.
- Image: An image that represents the content on the web page. This image should be high-quality and visually appealing, as it will be the main focus of the shared preview.
- URL: The URL of the web page being shared.
- Type: The type of content on the web page, such as article, video, or product.
- Locale: The language and regional targeting for the content on the web page.
- Site Name: The name of the website where the content is hosted.
- Additional Data: Additional data can also be included in Open Graph metadata, such as author information, publisher information, and category tags.
The worst-case scenarios: Good or too Good?
The worst-case scenario for passing Open Graph metadata is that incorrect or incomplete data can be displayed in the shared preview on social media platforms. Maybe so ..
This can lead to a poor user experience and may discourage users from clicking through to the shared web content. Okay, maybe ..
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For example, if the Open Graph metadata includes an incorrect title or description for the shared web page, users may not understand the content that is being shared and may decide not to click through to the website. Scary stuff!
Similarly, if the shared preview image is low-quality or not relevant to the content on the web page, users may be less likely to engage with the shared content. Quite calming.
A way to “Try Before You Buy.” Anonymous login lets Facebook users sign up and demo third-party apps without having to create another username and password or give up their personal data until they’re sure they like the app. It’s not totally anonymous, though, as Facebook can still track the user’s app activity. Beyond anonymous trial modes, it could let developers build ‘anonymous-first’ apps like a Secret clone that doesn’t employ a user’s name but still maintain a profile that can save their previous activity like posts, high scores, or progress.
In some cases, incorrect or incomplete Open Graph metadata can even lead to negative consequences for website owners. For instance, if a business shares a product page with incorrect pricing information in the Open Graph metadata, this could lead to customer confusion and damage the business's reputation. Similarly, if a news website shares a story with an incorrect or misleading headline in the Open Graph metadata, this could lead to public backlash and damage the website's credibility. One wouldn't want that!
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To avoid these negative outcomes, it is important for website developers to carefully review and test their Open Graph metadata to ensure that it accurately reflects the content on their web pages. By doing so, they can provide a positive user experience and encourage more engagement with their content.
Granular Mobile Privacy Permissions?
Previously, apps asked users to provide all their personal data and sharing permissions in two big screens. Soon, developers will have to provide a checklist of each data type and permission they’re requesting, such as friend list, Likes, email address, and the ability to post to the News Feed.
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