How to Add an Open Graph Title (og:title) — Step-by-Step
Add an open graph title tag so your pages look great when shared — exact steps for WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify and custom sites.
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If ScoutRival’s SEO Score flagged “Add Open Graph titles,” it means one or more of your pages is missing the og:title tag — the headline that appears when someone shares your link on social media. It’s a quick, no-risk fix that makes your content look intentional and clickable wherever it’s shared. This guide walks you through it on every major platform, no coding background required.
What is an Open Graph title tag?
An Open Graph title tag (og:title) is a line of HTML in a page’s <head> that tells social platforms and AI tools what headline to display when your page is shared or previewed. Open Graph is a shared standard — originally created by Facebook — that almost every social network, messaging app and link-preview tool now reads.
Think of it as the headline on a movie poster. Your web page is the film; the Open Graph title is the big, punchy line on the poster that makes someone stop and look. If you don’t design the poster, the platform slaps together its own — usually a dull, cut-off version of your page title, or worse, whatever text it finds first.
Here’s the tag in its simplest form:
<meta property="og:title" content="A share-worthy headline">
That one line is what turns a plain, uninviting link into a preview card with a clear, deliberate title.
Why the og:title matters for your SEO
The og:title isn’t a direct Google ranking factor — but it quietly shapes two things that do move the needle:
- Click-through when your content is shared. Every time someone posts your link on LinkedIn, drops it in a Slack channel, or texts it in WhatsApp, the preview headline is your first (and often only) sales pitch. A sharp, specific
og:titleearns clicks; a blank or truncated one gets scrolled past. - How AI tools and social platforms represent you. AI assistants and answer engines increasingly read Open Graph tags to label and cite pages. A missing
og:titlemeans they fall back to guessing, and your brand shows up looking sloppy.
More shares and clicks feed back into your visibility over time — engagement signals, referral traffic, and brand searches all benefit. ScoutRival’s SEO Score checks whether each page has a proper og:title set. If it’s missing, the check fails, and the fix below clears it.
How to check if you have this problem
You can confirm this in about 30 seconds.
The quick manual check: paste your page URL into a link-preview tester like Facebook’s Sharing Debugger or opengraph.xyz. It shows the exact card people see when they share your link. If the title looks wrong, cut off, or blank, you’re missing (or misusing) og:title.
The under-the-hood check: open your page, right-click and choose View Page Source, then press Ctrl/Cmd+F and search for og:title. If nothing comes up, the tag isn’t there.
The tool check: run your site through ScoutRival’s SEO Score. It scans every page and flags exactly which ones are missing an Open Graph title — so you’re not checking pages one at a time.
How to fix it — step by step
Pick your platform below. On most builders this is a single form field; on a custom site it’s one line of code.
Before you start, write your headline. Keep it close to your page’s real title but optimised for a human scrolling a feed: clear, specific, and ideally 40–60 characters so it doesn’t get cut off. Here’s the tag you’ll be adding:
<meta property="og:title" content="A share-worthy headline">
WordPress
WordPress doesn’t add Open Graph tags on its own, so you’ll want an SEO plugin — most sites already have one:
- In Yoast SEO, edit the page or post and scroll to the Yoast SEO box below the editor. Open the Social tab (in newer versions, click Social previews).
- Fill in the Social title field — that becomes your
og:title. Leave it blank and Yoast reuses your SEO title. - In Rank Math, open the Rank Math panel, go to the Social tab, and set the Open Graph Title there.
- Update the page. Yoast and Rank Math automatically output the correct
<meta property="og:title">tag for you.
Wix
Wix builds the Open Graph tag from your page’s social settings:
- Open your Wix dashboard → SEO (or edit the page and open its SEO Basics settings).
- Find the Social Share section, which controls how the page looks when shared.
- Edit the Title field there and click Save. Wix publishes the
og:titleautomatically — no code needed.
Squarespace
Squarespace pulls the share title from each page’s SEO settings:
- In the Squarespace editor, hover the page in the Pages panel and click the ⚙ (gear) → SEO tab.
- Set the SEO Title — Squarespace uses this for both the search title and the Open Graph title.
- For finer control, some templates let you add code. Otherwise the SEO Title is your
og:title. Save and the change goes live.
Webflow
Webflow gives you a dedicated Open Graph section per page:
- Open Pages in the Designer, click the ⚙ (gear) on the page, and scroll to Open Graph Settings.
- Enter your headline in the Title field. Tick “Same as SEO title settings” if you want it to mirror your meta title, or untick it to write a distinct social headline.
- Click Save, then Publish your site so the tag goes live on your real domain.
Shopify
Shopify themes output Open Graph tags automatically, usually from the page or product title — but you can override them:
- For a quick win, make sure each product, page and blog post has a clear title, since your theme’s
og:titleis built from it. - To customise, go to Online Store → Themes → ⋯ → Edit code and open your theme’s
theme.liquidfile. - Find the Open Graph section (search for
og:title) and confirm it references a meaningful field. Save. If you’re not comfortable editing code, an SEO app from the Shopify App Store can manage social titles for you.
Any other website (custom or unlisted CMS)
If you hand-code your site or use a builder not listed above, add the tag yourself:
- Open the template that renders your page’s
<head>section. - Add the Open Graph title tag, filling in a real headline:
<meta property="og:title" content="A share-worthy headline">
- Give each page its own unique
og:title— don’t hard-code one headline site-wide. Pair it withog:descriptionandog:imagefor a complete preview card. Save and redeploy.
How to confirm it’s fixed
- Run your page URL through the Facebook Sharing Debugger and click Scrape Again. The preview should now show your new headline. (Debuggers cache old previews, so re-scraping forces a refresh.)
- Check the source: View Page Source, search for
og:title, and confirm your headline is there. - Re-run your ScoutRival SEO audit. The “Add Open Graph titles” item should now pass, and your Structured Data & Richness pillar score should tick up.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Leaving it blank and hoping for the best. No
og:titlemeans the platform guesses — and its guess is rarely as good as yours. - Making it identical to a truncated page title. Your
og:titlecan be more conversational and benefit-led than your search title. Use that freedom. - Writing it too long. Over ~60 characters and social platforms cut it off mid-word. Keep it tight.
- Using one headline for every page. A site-wide
og:titlemakes every share look the same. Each page deserves its own. - Forgetting to re-scrape after editing. Social platforms cache previews aggressively. If the old title still shows, run the debugger’s “scrape again” to force an update.
The bottom line
The Open Graph title is a tiny tag with an outsized job: it’s the headline that decides whether your links get clicked or ignored everywhere they’re shared. Write a clear, specific headline, add the og:title tag (or fill the social-title field on your builder), test the preview, and you’ve turned every share into a better first impression.
While you’re at it, pair the title with a proper preview image — see our guide on open graph image size and how to add og:image. And to find every page on your site that’s still missing these tags, run a free SEO Score with ScoutRival for a prioritised, plain-English to-do list.
Frequently asked questions
What is an og:title tag?
Is og:title the same as the page title tag?
How long should an og:title be?
Does og:title affect Google rankings?
What happens if I don't set an og:title?
How do I add an og:title in WordPress?
Why does my share preview still show the old title after I changed it?
Nasir Uddin is an SEO consultant and ScoutRival's SEO & Growth Lead. He's spent years helping small businesses climb the search results — and now the AI answers too — and writes about SEO, AI-search visibility, and turning organic traffic into real growth.
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