Implementation overview
Optimize Open Graph & Twitter Cards in Webflow for AI (2026)
Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags control how your content is previewed when shared on social platforms — but their role in AI-powered search is less commonly understood. When AI systems crawl and retrieve web pages, they read the full HTML head section, including Open Graph metadata. A well-crafted og:title and og:description often becomes the summary an AI system extracts as a page description, particularly when the body content is long or poorly structured.
For Webflow sites, optimising these tags is a double return: better social previews and a cleaner, more consistent signal to AI retrieval systems about what each page covers. The og:title is one of the few fields where you can directly control the label an AI system attaches to your content.
Webflow has built-in Open Graph field support at both the page and CMS collection level, making this one of the quickest AEO improvements you can implement across an entire site.
How to do it on Webflow?
1. Set up Open Graph fields in your CMS collections
In Webflow, every CMS collection template page has an SEO Settings panel where you can bind Open Graph fields dynamically from collection data. For each content collection:
• Go to the collection template in the Designer → Pages panel → SEO Settings
• Set og:title — bind to your SEO Title CMS field (not the item name, which may be truncated)
• Set og:description — bind to your meta description or summary field
• Set og:image — bind to a dedicated “Social Image” CMS field (1200×630px recommended)
Add the following CMS fields to each collection if not already present:
• Social Image (Image) — separate from the featured image, optimised at 1200×630px
• Meta Description (Plain Text, 155 char max) — doubles as og:description
• SEO Title (Plain Text, 60 char max) — doubles as og:title
2. Configure Twitter Card meta tags
Twitter Cards (now X Cards) use separate meta tags from Open Graph. In Webflow, add these via Page Settings → Custom Code → Inside <head> on collection templates:
• <meta name=”twitter:card” content=”summary_large_image”>
• <meta name=”twitter:title” content=”[your SEO title]”>
• <meta name=”twitter:description” content=”[your meta description]”>
• <meta name=”twitter:image” content=”[your social image URL]”>
For CMS-driven templates, use Webflow’s embed element to inject dynamic field values. Use summary_large_image card type for content pages — the large image format gets significantly more engagement than plain summary cards.
3. Add author and article metadata for AI context
Beyond basic Open Graph, add article-specific metadata that AI systems use to establish authority and recency:
• <meta property=”article:author” content=”[Author name]”>
• <meta property=”article:published_time” content=”[ISO 8601 date]”>
• <meta property=”article:modified_time” content=”[ISO 8601 date]”>
• <meta property=”article:section” content=”[category]”>
The article:modified_time tag is particularly important for AI freshness signals — it tells retrieval systems when content was last updated without requiring them to parse the body text for date references. Combine this with embedded author IDs and canonical URLs for complete metadata coverage.
4. Write og:title and og:description for AI extraction
These fields are read by AI systems as page summaries. Follow these standards:
• og:title: Should answer “what does this page tell me?” in under 60 characters. Include the primary keyword. Not “Blog Post — Topic” but “How to Implement X in Webflow”.
• og:description: A single, self-contained sentence that accurately describes the page’s primary value. Under 155 characters. Not “Read our guide on X” but “A step-by-step guide to implementing X in Webflow, including Webflow MCP automation and schema markup.”
Treat og:description as a 155-character featured snippet opportunity — write it as if it will be the only sentence an AI system quotes from your page.
5. Validate and audit with the Webflow MCP server
Use the Webflow MCP server to audit all published CMS items for missing or default og:title and og:description values — flagging items where these fields are empty or duplicated across pages. A missing og:description means the AI system will attempt to auto-generate a summary from body text, which is far less controlled than a hand-written field.
For discovery completeness, pair this with your llms.txt file and LLM content feeds — together these form a full discovery metadata layer for AI systems crawling your site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Open Graph tags affect Google SEO rankings?
Not directly — Google doesn’t use og:title or og:description as ranking signals. However, well-written Open Graph tags improve click-through rates from social shares and AI-surfaced previews, which drive more traffic and engagement signals. The article:modified_time tag does provide a freshness signal that AI retrieval systems use when evaluating content recency.
What image dimensions should I use for Open Graph in Webflow?
1200×630px is the recommended size for og:image. This renders well as a large image preview on most platforms. Upload a dedicated social image at this size rather than relying on your featured image, which may be cropped or too tall for the 1.91:1 aspect ratio social platforms expect. Ensure the image is served over HTTPS.
What is the difference between og:title and the page title tag?
The HTML <title> tag controls what appears in browser tabs and Google search results. og:title controls what appears when the page is shared on social platforms and read by AI systems as a page label. In Webflow, these should usually match, but og:title can be slightly more descriptive since it’s not constrained by SERP truncation rules the same way.
Should every Webflow page have Open Graph tags?
Yes — every page that could be shared, linked to, or retrieved by an AI system benefits from explicit Open Graph tags. Pages without them will have their title and a truncated body excerpt used as a preview, which is rarely as accurate or compelling as a hand-written og:title and og:description. In Webflow, set fallback values at the site level and override with page-specific values for important content.
Sources
• Open Graph Protocol — official specification
• X (Twitter) — Cards documentation
• Meta — Sharing best practices for developers
Do's
✅ Add a dedicated Social Image field to every CMS collection: 1200×630px, separate from featured image, optimised for preview rendering
✅ Write og:description as a 155-character featured snippet: Treat it as the one sentence an AI system will quote from your page
✅ Include article:modified_time on all content pages: This freshness signal directly informs AI retrieval systems about content recency
✅ Add author metadata to all published content: Author name, credentials, and publication date establish E-E-A-T signals in the page head
✅ Audit for missing og:description values across your site: Pages without this field rely on auto-extracted body text, which is far less controlled
Do's
❌ Don’t use generic descriptions: “Read our blog post about X” is not a description — state specifically what the page covers and who it’s for
❌ Don’t forget image alt text for og:image: Include descriptive alt text on social images for accessibility and AI image context
❌ Don’t duplicate og:title across pages: Each page needs a unique, specific title — duplicates signal thin content to both AI systems and search engines
❌ Don’t use misleading previews: The og:description must accurately represent the page — a mismatch between preview and content increases bounce rate and damages trust signals
❌ Don’t rely on Webflow’s auto-generated fallbacks for important pages: Manually review og:title and og:description for your highest-traffic pages to ensure they’re optimised, not just populated
Tools
