Meta Tag Generator
Optional. 1200 × 630 is the usual size.
- 53
- Title length
- 106
- Description length
- 9
- Tags produced
The meta tag generator produces the head tags a page actually needs (title, description, canonical, Open Graph and Twitter card) with the values escaped so an ampersand or a quotation mark in your title cannot break the markup.
How it works
- The title and description are emitted both as standard tags and as Open Graph properties, because a social crawler reads og:title and ignores the title element.
- The canonical is emitted as a link element and as og:url, which should always be the same absolute URL.
- og:type defaults to website. Use article for a post, which lets platforms show publication metadata.
- The Twitter card type controls the layout: summary is a small square thumbnail, summary_large_image is a wide banner.
- Every value is escaped for &, <, > and ", an unescaped quotation mark in a title silently truncates the attribute.
One thing the generator deliberately omits: a meta keywords tag. Google has ignored it since 2009 and it does nothing but advertise your keyword list to competitors. Any generator still emitting one is copying a template from fifteen years ago.
Examples
A standard page
Title
Percentage Calculator: Work Out Percentages Five Ways
Result
title, og:title, description, og:description, canonical, og:url, og:type, twitter:card
Eight tags from four fields, because each value is needed in more than one place.
An ampersand in the title
Title
Tips & Tricks
Result
content="Tips & Tricks"
Unescaped, this is technically invalid and some parsers mishandle it. The escaping is automatic.
Without a share image
Image URL
empty
Result
og:image omitted entirely
An empty og:image is worse than none. Some platforms show a broken placeholder rather than falling back.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need a meta keywords tag?
No. Google announced in 2009 that it ignores the keywords meta tag entirely, and no major engine has used it for well over a decade. Its only real effect today is showing competitors which terms you are targeting.
Is it worth writing a description Google will probably rewrite?
Yes, but hold it loosely. Google generates its own description on the majority of queries, and it is not a ranking factor either way. A good one is used often enough to matter for click-through, and costs a sentence to write.
What size should the Open Graph image be?
1200 by 630 pixels, a 1.91:1 ratio, which is what Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter's large card all expect. Under 600 pixels wide and some platforms refuse to render it. The URL must be absolute. A relative path will not resolve for a crawler.
Why does my link preview not update after I fixed the tags?
Caching. Facebook, LinkedIn and Slack all cache the scrape aggressively. Each has a debugger tool that forces a re-fetch. That is the only reliable way to refresh a preview short of waiting days.
Should og:url match the canonical?
Yes, always, and both should be the absolute URL of the page itself. If they disagree, shares of one URL accumulate against another, and you have effectively split the page in two as far as social platforms are concerned.