Why Should You Remove the OG image tag: All the Peculiarities Uncovered by Netpeak Checker

Not including a meta OG image tag in SEO and social tags could sound odd. Adding alt text is helpful for accessibility, so why not use it on Facebook and Twitter, too? However, it is more complicated than it sounds and may even lead to restricted usage.

The Netpeak Checker will answer these and other questions, so keep reading!

Why Alt Attributes Can Be Challenging?

Alternative text is vital in providing accessibility and search engines understanding the content. But be careful here since the alternative text must not just describe the image, but explain the purposes for its use based on the context.

W3C distinguishes different image purposes: informative, functional, and decorative. They provide the alt choice tree to help in finding the correct category for a given image. Generally, decorative images don’t require an alternative text, while informative and functional ones do.

What is an OG Image Alt?

An OG image tag stands for a description of what is in the image. Due to the Open Graph protocol manual developed by Facebook, if the page includes an opengraph image, it should also specify a meta OG image. The OGimage alt tag provides alternative text for an image when its webpage is shared on social media.

Here is an alt tag image example as an additional structured property to the image link (OG image):

OG Image Alt Attributes Variability

WordPress is limited to setting one default alternative text for images, although different images may require different alternative texts based on their purpose and context. But there is also good news! You can manually change the alternative text in the post content to fulfill different purposes.

Informative Images

The informative images demonstrate an idea or information you can summarize in a short sentence. The alternative text must convey the image's meaning, not just describe it directly.

Decorative Images

Decorative images are used only for visual appeal rather than to give more information. In such instances, an empty alt text <alt=""> should be used so screen readers can bypass them.

You can consider images decorative when they are:

• Stylings like borders, spacers, and corners.
• Extra for making the link text stand out or providing a more extensive clickable area.
• A visual representation of adjacent text without adding information, also known as eye candy.
• Identified and described by wrapping text.

Functional Images

Functional images are action-oriented but not informative. They are placed in buttons, links, and other interactive features. The alt text for functional images should explain what action it represents rather than describe the image.

What Does Image OG Title Do?

The OG image alt tag is a part of the Open Graph protocol, identifying the alt text for an image when shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. If it is on social sharing, there must be more than the image itself to describe the linked image. The alt og tag for the linked image should focus on where the link will take the user and not explain the visual elements of the image.

Is It Worth Removing the Meta OG Image Tag?

To cut a long story short, yes, it is. Facebook and other social media platforms use linked images for shares. So, the alt tag image should indicate the link destination and the title of the linked post. It won’t be possible to describe the image's content using the opengraph image alt attribute. And the users who rely on assistive technology might not get this point so quickly.

Adding the meta OG image value of the post title is incorrect, too. The purpose of such an OG title for a linked image in social sharing needs to be clarified. Yoast SEO 10.1 removed the ability to set the OG Facebook alt tag for this. Facebook and other platforms should be responsible for providing meaningful alt text for their content. It’s logical since they know how the opengraph image will be used, the context in which it will be used, and its OG title. They can also generate alternative text automatically when the OG image has an informative value.

Why Is It Important?

Yoast's decision to remove the ability to set the opengraph image alt tag is based on its actual usage by the leading social platforms. The og:image:alt has either not been used at all or has been used in a potentially problematic way for accessibility and SEO in recent years. Here are the open graph image examples from Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook

Yoast testing shows that the alternative text of the linked image in a Facebook post preview is set to the OG title value. This post title is linked and is a fitting description of the link destination.

Here is a Yoast example from Facebook with the BBC News post links to a page that uses an og:image:alt tag.

The tag content value shows us the following info:

The content text is not visible in Facebook’s post title, as we can see. The linked image Facebook alt text is set to the OG title tag value.

X (Former Twitter)

The same goes for posts in ex-Twitter when we are talking about the shared link. For instance, if you inspect this tweet’s source, you won’t locate the og:image:alt. However, in the <meta content>, we see the property=“og:title” attribute also visible on the image coverage as ‘Lantern Festival sparks colorful celebrations.’ Even the aria-hidden="true" attributes don’t include the opengraph image alt tag.

How To Improve OGimage Alt Tag With Netpeak Checker?

Netpeak’s Open Graph Checker helps analyze all the required links OG tags on social media feeds and improve your content strategy. It enables you to check the Open Graph Title, Description, and Updated Time and analyze data from third parties with additional page metrics.

Follow the following steps to benefit from the Netpeak Open Graph Checker.

Select Pages for Analysis

Navigate to the Netpeak Checker, open the Graph test, and verify your email address. Afterward, enter or upload the pages you’d like to analyze.

Check Mark Needed Parameters

Locate the Facebook section in the ‘Parameters tab.’ Select these attributes: Open Graph Title, Open Graph Description, and Open Graph Updated Time.

Incorporate Facebook API

Obtain the meta OG image tags data from the Facebook graph. Here, you need to authorize Netpeak Checker by following the Facebook login link. Then, paste the access token into the related field, as shown in the picture.

Discover OG Tags

After the scanning, you’ll receive the following info on the provided link: OG Title, OG Description, OG Updated time, OG Image, and OG URL. Sharing your website on social media displays this information.

Export the Results

Once the scan is done, drag the necessary data in the preferred format through the ‘Export’ tab. You can choose between XLSX, CSV, TXT, and other formats.

Conclusion

We explored the reasons for removing the OG image alt tag and highlighted the complexities of creating alt text for images. So, what is OG image? It is a preview content tag representing the shared web page content (on social media, of course). There are different variations of OG image attributes, such as informative, decorative, and functional. This leads to user confusion.

Besides, on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the effectiveness of a meta OG image tag is not proven. At the same time, Netpeak Checker offers a strategic solution for analyzing and optimizing Open Graph tags, so your social media shared links will always remain up-to-date with SEO goals. Try it for free now!