Have you ever sent a link through social media and noticed the attached image was pixilated and improperly sized? Regardless if you were the sender or receiver of the link, it looks unattractive to any user and could prevent a click on the link. With the Open Graph protocol, you can size your image to display exactly as intended and use eye-catching graphics to improve your visibility across social media platforms. Having control over your social media snippets is crucial to your success; see how you can bring more valuable traffic to your website from social media networks with an Open Graph markup.
What is Open Graph?
Open Graph is an internet protocol that Facebook originally created. The protocol controls what content is displayed to users when sharing URLs and links on social media. The Open Graph protocol allows you to control what image, title, and description are displayed when sharing links on social media. Without optimizing your Open Graph, social media platforms can choose random images, titles, and descriptions for you, which may be misleading to users.
Here is how a post will look when shared with proper Open Graph tags are used:
Why is Open Graph Important for My Website?
Most of the content we create for our website is created with the goal of it to be shared with others. Whether you intend to share your link with one user or many across social media platforms, Open Graph optimizes your shared content and provides a better experience for the user. While improving the visibility of your content, it also makes it more engaging to attract new clicks and potential conversions.
Additionally, here are four reasons you need to implement Open Graph on your website:
- Increase your social media links’ Click Through Rate
- Control how your links are displayed
- Improve your chances of shares
- Expand your organic backlinks for more visibility
Open Graph vs. Schema Markup
You may be reading this thinking, what’s the difference between Open Graph and Schema Markup? While both HTML markups are implemented and used to boost engagement, it always helps to use both!
The Difference
Open Graph is an HTML markup social media networks use to display shared content. When a URL is shared from one user to another via direct message or a post, the Open Graph tag is used to create a rich visual attached to the link. While Open Graph is a useful tool for digital marketers, it doesn’t provide detailed information about your page to search engines as the Schema Markup.
Schema is an HTML markup used by search engines such as Google and Bing. A Schema Markup helps search engines read your content and rank it properly on the search engine results pages (SERP). Installing a Schema Markup is vital for search engines to understand the content on your website and create rich snippets on the SERP to boost your reach.
Contact Boston Web Marketing
Take control of how your social media snippets display by setting up Open Graph to display rich objects. Improve your reach across the internet by contacting the experts at Boston Web Marketing to get you there! As New England’s largest independent digital marketing company, we have the resources and expertise to help you get found quick! Contact us today by calling 857-526-0096 or filling out our online contact form. We look forward to hearing from you soon!