Skip to main content
LovedByAI
Start free trial
Free tool

Meta tag checker and link preview

Check any page's title, description and Open Graph tags, and see the link preview it gets in Google, on social media and in chat apps.

Works on any public page. We read it once, like a browser, and change nothing.

How to check meta tags with this tool

The meta tag checker reads a page the way a browser does, pulls out every tag that decides how it appears in search and in shared links, and draws the result. It also loads your og:image and measures its real pixel size, which is the check most share previews fail.

  1. Paste a page address

    Any public page works: a blog post, a product page, your homepage. The path is kept, so you check the exact page you plan to share.

  2. Read the verdict

    One line tells you whether anything is broken, and which problem to fix first.

  3. Look at the previews

    Your Google result, your Facebook and LinkedIn card and your X card, drawn from the tags the page really has.

  4. Fix and check again

    Each check says what is wrong and how to fix it. Change the tag, then run the page again to confirm.

Which meta tags matter for SEO and AI search in 2026

Most meta tags do nothing. A handful decide what people see before they ever reach your page, and those are the ones this checker reports.

Search: title and description

The title tag is the headline of your search result and the name AI search tools give the page when they cite it. The meta description is the summary you offer for the snippet. Google may rewrite either, but it starts from yours.

Social: Open Graph and X cards

Open Graph tags build the card that appears when someone pastes your link into Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, WhatsApp or iMessage. X reads its own twitter: tags and falls back to Open Graph when they are missing.

Technical: canonical, robots, viewport

The canonical says which address is the real one. A robots noindex removes the page from search entirely. The viewport tag decides whether phones render the page properly.

AI search has made the first two more important, not less. ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Claude show the page title in the source links under their answers, and Google's AI Overviews draw from the same index as regular Search, so a noindex tag or a missing title costs you there too. The title and description are often the first lines an AI tool reads about a page, which makes them your one-sentence pitch to the model as well as to the reader.

Meta tags are only part of what AI assistants look at. Whether their crawlers can reach the page, and whether it has structured data, matter as much. The free AI readiness checker tests all of it in one scan.

How to write a good title tag and meta description

Title tag. Google's own documentation says there is no limit on how long a <title> can be, but the title shown in results is truncated to fit the device width. In practice that means titles past around 60 characters often lose their end on desktop, and shorter than around 30 usually wastes the space. Put the words people search for first, then your brand. Every page needs its own title; two pages titled "Home" or "Services" compete with each other.

Meta description. Google also sets no length limit here, and says snippets are mostly built from the page content itself, using the meta description when it describes the page better. So write it for the reader: one or two sentences, roughly 70 to 160 characters, saying what the page offers and who it is for. Don't repeat the title, and don't stuff keywords.

A useful test: if the title and description were the only thing a person or an AI read about the page, would they know what they would get by clicking?

Open Graph tags explained, with an example

Open Graph is the tag format Facebook introduced and almost every app now reads. Four tags do the work: og:title, og:description, og:image and og:url. Here is a complete head for a local service page, search and social tags together:

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

  <!-- Search -->
  <title>Emergency Plumber in Austin, TX | Smith Plumbing</title>
  <meta name="description" content="Smith Plumbing fixes burst pipes, leaks and blocked drains across Austin, day or night. Licensed, insured, with upfront prices.">
  <link rel="canonical" href="https://smithplumbing.com/emergency-plumber/">

  <!-- Open Graph: Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage -->
  <meta property="og:type" content="website">
  <meta property="og:url" content="https://smithplumbing.com/emergency-plumber/">
  <meta property="og:title" content="Emergency plumber in Austin, day or night">
  <meta property="og:description" content="Burst pipe or no hot water? A licensed plumber at your door, with the price agreed first.">
  <meta property="og:image" content="https://smithplumbing.com/images/emergency-plumber-1200x630.jpg">
  <meta property="og:site_name" content="Smith Plumbing">

  <!-- X: only the card type is required, the rest falls back to og: -->
  <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
</head>

Notice the og:title can differ from the title tag. Search titles carry the keyword and the brand; a share headline only has to make a friend want to click.

The og:image is where most cards break. Meta's guide to images in link shares (checked October 2026) recommends images of at least 1200 × 630 pixels, as close to a 1.91:1 ratio as possible, under 8 MB. Smaller than 600 × 315 and Facebook still shows the image, but much smaller, and 200 × 200 is the minimum it accepts. The URL must be absolute (starting with https://) and must load for anyone, not only for logged-in users. This checker fetches the image and reports all of that.

Twitter card types and how to validate your X card

X decides the card layout from one tag, twitter:card. For the title, description and image it falls back to your Open Graph tags, so most sites only need the card type. The X preview above shows the card your tags produce.

summary_large_image

A wide image across the full width of the post, with the title and domain. The right choice for articles, products and landing pages.

summary

A small square thumbnail beside the title and description. Fine for profile pages and anything without a strong image.

Two other types exist, player for video and audio and app for app store listings, but they need X's approval or extra tags and most sites never use them.

How to check meta tags manually with view source

Open the page, right-click and choose View page source (or press Ctrl+U, Cmd+Option+U on a Mac). Search with Ctrl+F for <title, name="description", og: and twitter:. Use view source rather than the browser's inspector: the inspector shows the page after JavaScript has run, while share bots and many crawlers only read the original HTML.

View source tells you a tag is there. It doesn't tell you whether the og:image loads, how big it is, or whether the canonical points at a page that redirects, which is why this checker fetches each of those.

How to fix meta tags in WordPress

WordPress writes the <title> tag through your theme, but on its own it adds no meta description and no Open Graph tags. Those come from a plugin.

  • Yoast SEO: open the post, scroll to the Yoast box under the editor and fill in the SEO title and meta description. The Social tab sets a separate share title, description and image.
  • Rank Math: open the Rank Math panel, choose Edit Snippet for the title and description, and use its Social tab for the Facebook and X image.
  • Two plugins at once: if the checker finds two title tags or two descriptions, a theme or a second SEO plugin is writing them too. Keep one.

LovedByAI, our generative engine optimization plugin for WordPress, writes these tags automatically alongside the structured data AI assistants read, so new pages are not published with an empty description or no share image. If you would rather add structured data by hand, the schema markup generator builds it. Not sure what a site runs on? The CMS detector will tell you, and names the WordPress theme and plugins when it can.

Why your link preview shows the wrong image

You fixed the tag, the checker shows the right image, and Facebook still shows the old one. That is a cache, not a tag problem.

Every platform saves a copy of your card the first time someone shares the link, and keeps using it. To make it read the page again, use each platform's own tool:

  • Facebook: paste the link into the Sharing Debugger and press Scrape Again.
  • LinkedIn: run the link through Post Inspector, which refreshes LinkedIn's copy.
  • Slack, WhatsApp and X: there is no public refresh button. Adding a harmless query string such as ?v=2 to the link makes them treat it as new.

If the image is still wrong after a re-scrape, check three things here: that og:image is an absolute https:// address, that it loads without a login or a bot wall, and that only one og:image tag is on the page.

What this checker can't see

We read the HTML the server sends. Tags added later by JavaScript, which some page builders do, won't show up here, and most share bots won't see them either. If a site answers us with a bot check instead of the page, the result says so rather than reporting tags as missing.

Meta tag checker and Open Graph questions

How do I check the meta tags on a page?

Paste the page address into the meta tag checker above. It reads the page like a browser and reports the title, meta description, canonical, robots, Open Graph and X card tags, then previews the Google result and share cards they produce. To look by hand, open the page, choose View page source and search for <title, description, og: and twitter:.

How long should a title tag be?

Google sets no character limit for the title element, but it truncates the title shown in results to fit the screen width. Titles longer than around 60 characters often lose their end on desktop, and ones shorter than around 30 usually leave useful space empty. Put the words people search for first and your brand last.

How long should a meta description be?

Google sets no length limit for meta descriptions and truncates snippets to fit the screen. Roughly 70 to 160 characters fits one or two full sentences, which is enough to say what the page offers and who it is for. Google builds most snippets from page content and uses your description when it describes the page better.

What size should an og:image be?

Meta's guide to images in link shares recommends at least 1200 × 630 pixels, as close to a 1.91:1 ratio as possible, with a file under 8 MB. Images smaller than 600 × 315 still show on Facebook but much smaller, and 200 × 200 is the minimum it accepts. Use an absolute https:// address that loads without a login.

Why is Facebook or LinkedIn showing the wrong image for my link?

Each platform caches the card the first time a link is shared, so a fixed tag can keep showing the old image. Run the link through Facebook's Sharing Debugger and press Scrape Again, and through LinkedIn's Post Inspector. If it is still wrong, check that og:image is an absolute https:// URL, loads publicly, and appears only once on the page.

Do I need Twitter card tags if I already have Open Graph tags?

You need one: twitter:card, which sets the layout. For the title, description and image, X falls back to og:title, og:description and og:image when the twitter: versions are missing. Add twitter: tags only when you want X to show something different from Facebook and LinkedIn.

Do meta tags matter for ChatGPT and AI search?

Yes. ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Claude show the page title in the source links under their answers, and the title and description are often the first lines an AI tool reads about a page. A noindex robots tag also keeps the page out of Google's index, which Google's AI Overviews draw from. Crawler access and structured data matter as much, which the free AI readiness checker tests.

Does Google always use my meta description?

No. Google says snippets are primarily created from the page content itself, and it uses the meta description when that gives a more accurate summary of the page for the search. A specific, accurate description that matches what the page actually says is the one most likely to be shown.

More free AI search tools

Your tags are one part of being found by AI

The free AI readiness check also tests crawler access, structured data, content and speed, and gives you a fix list.

Run the free AI readiness check
Meta Tag Checker & Link Preview (Open Graph) | LovedByAI