Open Graph: Definition, online marketing relevance and function
Open Graph is an internet protocol that was originally developed by Facebook. It makes it possible to influence the presentation of websites when they are shared on social networks.
This essentially works by inserting specific metadata on a website. This defines a standard display format for various social media channels. In addition to Facebook, Open Graph has now also been adopted by other networks such as Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
Why is Open Graph important for online marketing?
Social media channels are a reliable source of website visitors (traffic) and conversions (targeted online actions, such as purchases or making contact). Unfortunately, the competition in the social network is enormous in most industries. This competition requires the provision of outstanding content for reliable success.
This is exactly what can be created with the help of Open Graph. With the right mix of strategy and design, brands can convince users to click through to their website to learn more about their offers, leave contact details, buy and much more.
How does Open Graph work in practice?
Open Graph and the corresponding tags (markup elements) are usually inserted in the head section of the website in question.
The four basic tags that are basically required for every page are og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url. These tags should always be unique for the individual pages to be shared. This means that the tags of the homepage should be different from those of the blog posts.
Here is a breakdown of what the individual tags mean:
- og:title: The title of the page is prominently displayed as such on the social network.
- og:type: This indicates the type of page shared as a guide. A general type is "website".
- og:image: This should be a link to an image that represents the respective content. The image is thus displayed in large format.
- og:url: The URL of the linked page should be specified here, which is then also presented in the social media post.
Open Graph is inserted together with the other metas in the head area of the respective page. Here are some examples of the above tags:
- < meta property="og:title" content="[Titel]" />
- < meta property="og:type" content="[Typ]" />
- < meta property="og:image" content="[Bild-Link]" />
- < meta property="og:url" content="[Website-Link]" />
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