Broken social link previews are one of the most common and frustrating SEO problems. The page looks fine in a browser but shares with no image, no title, or no description. Here is how to diagnose and fix them.
Step 1: Check your tags exist. Use metatagpreviewer's URL checker to confirm your og:title, og:description, and og:image tags are present and have the correct values. Missing tags are the most common cause.
Step 2: Ensure og:image is an absolute URL. A relative path like /images/hero.jpg will not work. It must be a full URL: https://example.com/images/hero.jpg.
Step 3: Check image dimensions and file size. Facebook requires a minimum of 200 × 200 pixels. Images under 600 × 315 may not display as large cards. The image must be under 8MB. Use a tool like Squoosh to optimize and verify.
Step 4: Verify the image is publicly accessible. Open the og:image URL in an incognito browser window. If it redirects, requires a cookie, or returns a 404, social crawlers cannot fetch it.
Step 5: Use the platform's debug tool. Facebook has the Sharing Debugger at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug. LinkedIn has the Post Inspector at linkedin.com/post-inspector. These tools show you exactly what the platform sees when it fetches your URL and will tell you if there are specific errors.
Step 6: Clear the cache. Social platforms cache link previews aggressively. After fixing your tags, use the debug tool to force a re-scrape. On Facebook's Sharing Debugger, click "Scrape Again".
Step 7: Check for crawl blocks. Some hosting configurations block social crawlers. Check your robots.txt and any firewall rules that might be blocking requests from Facebook's and LinkedIn's crawler IP ranges.