Tutorial: Learn how to fix the og:image Open Graph Meta Tags are Missing Critical Issue Now!
If you’re paying attention to your search engine optimization errors you’re likely here due to Some Open Graph Meta Tags are Missing critical error which is caused by an og:image meta tag missing from your website and is identified by the All In One SEO Pack SEO Analysis — we’ll cover how to address this issue in this guide.
Facebook Open Graph tags define how URLs are displayed [9]; if these Facebook Meta Tags (OGP tags) are incomplete, then the URL may not display properly.
Missing Open Graph Tags TOC
Open Graph Tags (OGP tags) are supported by many websites and applications at this point, including social networks such as Facebook (see the Facebook Sharing Debugger), LinkedIn (see the LinkedIn Post Inspector), Instagram, Skype, WhatsApp, ServiceNow, to name just a few.
Twitter supports both the Twitter Cards (see the section on the Twitter Card Validator in the article explaining how to test OGP tags) as well as OGP tags.
If a link is shared to a page that has Twitter Cards then Twitter will use these settings however if Twitter Cards are not available, Twitter will use OGP Tags if they’re available on the page.
Open Graph Tags are used heavily on this website and the section entitled Addition of Schemas for Rich Snippets SEO Case Study provides additional information about adding schemas for rich snippets using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin for WordPress.
In this post we’ll take a look at the Open Graph Protocol, we’ll review the og:image meta tag, we’ll confirm that some OpenGraph meta tags are missing (which directly relates to the Open Graph Meta Tags are Missing critical error), and then we’ll remedy this issue.
Finally, we’ll take a brief look at the Facebook for Developers: Sharing Debugger and we’ll conclude with a quiz.
Why aren't my WhatsApp Open Graph tags working?
If your WhatsApp preview image isn’t showing correctly, this guide covers common issues — including tips on proper WhatsApp preview image size — and walks you through how to fix them step by step.
Troubleshoot WhatsApp PreviewsThis article relies on WordPress and the All In One SEO Pack plugin (AIOSEO).
This article was last updated on April 10, 2025 — see the Open Graph Tutorials category for other articles that can help skyrocket your website’s social media presence.
Why should we care that an og:image meta tag is missing?
The article entitled “How to Optimize Blog Images for Social Sharing: An Intro to Open Graph Tags” explains why the og:image meta tag is important: missing an image could result in an incorrect image being used or no image at all.
Missing an image will hurt social media performance and failing to maximize the potential of a share due to an issue that is easy to fix in WordPress results in a lost opportunity.
There are many articles that suggest how to maximize engagement on social media platforms and one recommendation which applies irrespective of the platform involves adding a picture.
According to the article entitled “7 Powerful Facebook Statistics You Should Know for a More Engaging Facebook Page“, posts that include an image receive 39% higher engagement — this article is an excellent read and includes other metrics and references that are worth reviewing.
The AIOSEO SEO Audit Indicates That Some Open Graph Meta Tags Are Missing
After running an SEO audit we now have two critical issues, one of which includes the missing og:image meta tag.
If you don’t set a featured image on a page or post, the default image, which is not set, will be used.
Let’s take a look at audit results in the following image — note the red pointer which indicates that we have some critical issues to address, including some OpenGraph meta tags are missing.
Next, we take a closer look at the critical issue details.
How to fix the Open Graph Meta Tags are Missing critical error in AIOSEO
In this section we’ll cover step-by-step what’s required to fix the Open Graph Meta Tags are Missing critical error in AIOSEO.
Step One: Set the default post Facebook image in the AIOSEO Social Networks setting
To remedy this issue, we set the default post Facebook image in the AIOSEO Social Networks setting.
The image below includes two red pointers that indicate where the change needs to be applied.
Step Two: Refresh the SEO Audit Checklist
Next, we refresh the results of the audit and we can see that this issue has been addressed successfully.
Be advised, however, that there will still be a problem if the image size is not compliant with Facebook image dimension requirements — we will cover this shortly.
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The image below shows us that the OpenGraph Meta Tags have been found and note that the issue that was initially flagged earlier in this guide has been addressed.
To optimize social media sharing of your content, conducting an Open Graph test is important since it ensures that posts are displayed correctly across various platforms and applications.
In the next section, we’ll take a brief look at the Facebook for Developers: Sharing Debugger.
Facebook for Developers: Sharing Debugger Can Be Helpful When Some Open Graph Meta Tags are missing
This section has been moved to the article that covers the Facebook Open Graph test tool.
Learn How to Fix the "Image Too Small" Warning in the Facebook Sharing Debugger
In order to fix this issue, the original image must be appropriately resized — this will address the “Image Too Small” warning.
Note that I had to press the “Scrape Again” button, otherwise Facebook was pulling the cached image.
Finally, when we post the URL to this page, we can see that the featured image is now used by Facebook and this is the expected behavior.
What are the Open Graph image size requirements?
Information pertaining to the Open Graph image size requirements has been moved.
Tutorial Conclusion
This instructional covered two issues that came about from an audit that I performed on my website.
Once this particular issue was addressed in the AIOSEO Pack Plugin for WordPress I reviewed two pages and discovered that an issue still existed on one of them.
Any SEO audit should not just verify that the og:image meta tag is present but also that the image is correctly sized — otherwise we’ll fix the problem, albeit not really.
If you enjoyed this post then I have other articles on SEO that may interest you as well.
Hire A Skilled WordPress SEO Specialist Now!
Tutorial References
- What You Need to Know About Open Graph Meta Tags for Total Facebook and Twitter Mastery
- What is Open Graph and how can it help my website with social media?
- How to Optimize Blog Images for Social Sharing: An Intro to Open Graph Tags
- New Research: Do Pictures of People Increase Facebook Engagement?
- 7 Powerful Facebook Statistics You Should Know for a More Engaging Facebook Page
- Best practices for implementing Facebook Sharing for your websites and mobile apps
- Google Developers: Web Fundamentals: Google’s opinionated reference for building amazing web experiences.
- Open Graph Meta Tags: Everything You Need to Know
- The Open Graph protocol
- Do your WordPress Pages Use Too Many JavaScript and CSS Files? Fix This SEMRush Site Audit Warning Now!
- What is Open Graph and how can I use it for my website?
- Facebook Open Graph best practices and recommendations
- What is the Open Graph URL?
- Learn how to fix the WhatsApp OpenGraph missing image problem now!
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- OG tag tester options
- What Are OGP Tags? Find out now!
- Fix the incorrect pages found in sitemap.xml error now!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The “metadata.metadataBase is not set for resolving social open graph or twitter images” warning pertains to an issue which happens in the next.js JavaScript library.
Find the direct link to the solution on the nextjs GitHub repository.
Meta for Developers, previously known as Facebook for Developers, is a platform provided by Meta (formerly Facebook) that offers tools, APIs, documentation, and resources to help developers build and integrate applications with Meta’s technologies, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
An Open Graph image (og:image) is a specific image that represents a webpage when shared on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter; messaging applications such as WhatsApp supports Open Graph tags.
The Open Graph image enhances the visual appeal of the shared content when we add Open Graph tags to a website.
The Open Graph Protocol meta tags (OGP tags) are embedded in the webpage’s HTML, and help to improve engagement and click-through rates.
Addendum regarding the og:image page source location.
The following page source image demonstrates that the og:image meta tag is missing in the All In One SEO Pro block.
Once the og:image has been set, we can review the updated page source, and the og:image meta tag will be set in the AIOSEO block, as indicated by the red pointers.
This step has been included here simply to demonstrate where this meta tag should be found.
