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To preview an Open Graph image, inspect the page’s delivered og:image, og:title, og:description, and og:url values, open the image URL directly, then compare a simulated card with the destination network’s own share result. A mockup can reveal a bad URL or crop; only the network’s crawler confirms what it will actually publish.

What an Open Graph image is—and what a preview can prove

An Open Graph (OG) image is the image a page advertises for link sharing. The page declares it with a meta tag such as <meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/share-card.jpg">. The same document normally includes og:title, og:description, and og:url. LinkedIn lists those four fields in its website-shareability guidance.

A preview service reads those values (or lets you enter them manually) and draws an example social card. That is useful for finding an incorrect URL, a missing field, or an obviously bad crop. It is not a promise that Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or another service will use the same font, crop, cache, or fallback image. The final check is a share attempt or re-scrape on the platform you care about.

Inspect the metadata delivered to visitors

Use browser developer tools

  1. Open the published page, not an editor or staging preview.
  2. Open developer tools (for example, Ctrl+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I) and choose the Elements panel.
  3. Press Ctrl+F or Cmd+F and search for og:image. Record the complete value in its content attribute.
  4. Repeat for og:title, og:description, and og:url. Check the page source as well if a script changes the document after load; many crawlers read the initial HTML response.
  5. Copy the image URL into a new private window. Confirm that it displays the intended card without a login, cookie, expiring token, or referer-dependent permission.

Inspect the absolute URL exactly as delivered. A relative path, an HTTP URL on an HTTPS page, a typo in the hostname, or a URL that redirects to a protected location can prevent retrieval even when the tag itself is present.

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Check the raw response from a terminal

Fetching the page with a command-line client helps reveal differences between your browser and a crawler:

curl -L -s https://example.com/article | grep -i -E 'property=["'"']og:(image|title|description|url)["'"']'

Then inspect the image response:

curl -I -L https://example.com/path/share-card.jpg

Look for a successful final status, an image Content-Type (such as image/jpeg, image/png, or image/webp), and a stable URL. A redirect to an HTML login page, a 403/401 response, or a download that requires a session explains a missing card.

Check more than one page variant

Test the canonical URL, a trailing-slash variant, and any URL parameters that your CMS uses for language or tracking. Each can return different metadata. Make sure og:url identifies the share URL you intend; changing only the visible page title does not necessarily change the metadata response.

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Verify the image file before judging its design

  • Resolution and ratio: Open the original file and confirm that important text and logos are inside the central safe area. A platform may crop the edges.
  • File size: Keep the file small enough for the destination crawler. LinkedIn documents a 5 MB maximum.
  • Access: Remove authentication requirements, IP allow-lists, expiring signatures, and hotlink protections for the image URL, or provide a crawler-accessible alternative.
  • Encoding: Ensure the server returns an actual image rather than an HTML error page with an image extension.
  • Consistency: If a CDN serves different bytes by country, user agent, or cookie, test from a clean session and compare the final URL and response headers.

LinkedIn notes that an image can meet its size and dimension rules yet still fail when the website blocks retrieval or stores the file in a protected directory.

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Use a preview tool as a diagnostic, not a guarantee

What to compare

OG Preview advertises sample cards for Facebook, X, and LinkedIn and allows manual tag entry. Its URL-fetch beta says the URL is sent to an external third-party proxy. Do not submit a private, tokenized, or personally identifying URL when using that mode. Compare the service’s displayed values with the tags you found in the page source; a visual card alone does not prove that the right metadata was delivered.

OpenGraph.dev names Facebook Sharing Debugger, LinkedIn Post Inspector, and X Card Validator as platform-side re-scrape tools. Their interfaces and availability can change, so use the current official destination for the network you are testing. A re-scrape asks the platform to fetch the page again; it is different from a third-party renderer that merely simulates a card.

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A practical visual check

  1. Paste the public page URL into a preview service, or enter the four OG values manually.
  2. Compare the shown image URL, title, description, and destination URL with your source inspection.
  3. Check the crop at mobile and desktop widths. If text touches an edge, redesign the source image rather than relying on a platform-specific crop.
  4. Submit the same URL through the target network’s own sharing or inspector workflow and record whether it shows the same image.

LinkedIn’s documented image limits

The following figures are LinkedIn requirements, not universal rules for every social network:

LinkedIn item Documented value How to use it
Required metadata examples og:title, og:image, og:description, og:url Confirm all four are present in the delivered HTML.
Maximum image file size 5 MB Reduce the file or export a more efficient format if it exceeds the limit.
Minimum dimensions 1200 × 627 pixels Use at least this canvas size for LinkedIn sharing.
Recommended aspect ratio 1.91:1 Design at this ratio to reduce unexpected cropping.
Preview frame 1.91:1 and 1200 × 627 pixels Keep essential content away from the edges.
Cache refresh advice Wait up to 48 hours after the last share or tag change Allow the stated period before concluding that a change failed.

LinkedIn Help also states: “If we’re not able to retrieve a preview image, you can still share your update as a link.” Do not apply these numbers to Meta, X, or another service without checking that service’s current documentation.

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Why the preview is wrong, missing, or stale

Symptom Likely cause Fix
No image, but the tag exists The crawler receives a block page, login response, unsupported redirect, or protected file. Run curl -I -L on the image URL, remove access barriers, and test the final URL in a private window.
Old image after a redesign The platform has cached the earlier fetch. Use the platform’s inspector or re-scrape workflow, then allow LinkedIn’s stated 48-hour refresh period.
Wrong image from a template A second og:image appears earlier in the HTML, or the CMS serves different tags for another URL variant. Search the complete response for every og:image, remove unintended duplicates, and test the exact shared URL.
Image appears, but text is cut off The network’s card ratio differs from the design canvas. Keep critical text in a centered safe area and create a 1.91:1 version for LinkedIn.
Preview tool shows different metadata The tool fetched through a proxy, followed a redirect, or accepted manually entered values. Compare its resolved URL and values with the raw response, then verify on the destination platform.
Image works in a browser but not for a crawler Bot filtering, cookie consent, referer checks, or a user-agent rule blocks automated retrieval. Permit the platform crawler to fetch the public asset, or host an equivalent unprotected image.

Capture a visual record without relying on a third-party preview card

For a repeatable audit, open the page in a clean browser profile, wait for its visible content to settle, and capture the rendered page or the share-card element. Save the source HTML, the resolved image URL, and the capture timestamp together. This lets a team compare a later platform result with exactly what was published at that moment.

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If the card is generated by JavaScript, wait for the selector containing the card before capturing. If the page has a cookie banner, newsletter popup, or chat widget, dismiss or hide it first; otherwise the screenshot documents the obstruction rather than the page you meant to inspect.

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Or skip the browser setup

ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server for developers. It is the first option to try when you want a clean visual check: it removes cookie banners, newsletter popups, and chat widgets before capture, and only clean shots are billed.

One GET request returns PNG, JPEG, WebP, or a PDF. Replace the example URL with the page whose OG card you want to inspect.

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cURL (see the ScreenshotNeo API documentation):

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com/article -o shot.webp

Python:

import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://example.com/article"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)

Node.js:

const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://example.com/article' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);

ScreenshotNeo reports whether the response was a clean page, a bot check, a blank page, a timeout, a failed load, or a cache hit through the X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. Bot checks, blank pages, failed loads, timeouts, and cache hits cost nothing. Its MCP server exposes take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf to Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients, so an AI agent can inspect a page without custom browser automation.

Useful capture options for OG audits

  • Capture the full page with lazy-loaded images, or target the card with a CSS selector.
  • Set a device preset or custom viewport, dark mode, and retina scale to check responsive crops.
  • Use custom CSS or JavaScript, click an element, hide selectors, or wait for a selector, delay, or network idle.
  • Block ads, trackers, requests, or resource types that obscure the card.
  • Supply custom headers, cookies, a user agent, an Authorization header, timezone, or geolocation when your test environment requires them.
  • Resize the result, make the background transparent, cache it for a chosen TTL, create signed links for public <img> tags, submit asynchronous jobs with signed webhooks, capture up to 100 URLs per bulk call, and read usage through the usage API.

All ScreenshotNeo features are available on every plan. Current monthly options are:

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Performance and reliability notes

For occasional audits, a direct capture and a saved source response are sufficient. For many URLs, use ScreenshotNeo’s bulk endpoint (up to 100 URLs per call), caching with a TTL you choose, or asynchronous jobs with signed webhooks. Keep the original OG metadata inspection separate from the screenshot: a perfect image capture cannot prove that a social crawler accepted the tag or refreshed its cache. Record the response headers, final image URL, and platform result so a later comparison has reproducible evidence.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can one OG image preview represent every social network?

No. Preview services simulate a card from metadata, while each network can apply its own crop, cache, fallback, and crawler rules. Validate the network that matters to your audience.

Is it safe to paste a private page URL into a URL-fetch preview tool?

Avoid it unless you have confirmed the tool’s handling and the URL contains no credentials, access tokens, or personal data. OG Preview says its URL-fetch beta sends the URL through an external third-party proxy.

What should I save when reporting an OG-image bug?

Save the exact shared URL, the four OG values, the image URL’s final response headers, a timestamped screenshot, and the destination platform’s inspector result. That set distinguishes a publishing error from crawler or cache behavior.

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