Open Graph and dynamic OG images

OG tags don't affect ranking, but they shape how your link appears on LinkedIn, Slack, Telegram or X and can influence whether people click it. The Metadata API handles the tags:

export const metadata: Metadata = {
  openGraph: {
    title: "Next.js SEO Checklist",
    description: "Every layer of SEO in the App Router.",
    type: "article",
    images: [{ url: "/og/next-seo-checklist.png", width: 1200, height: 630 }],
  },
  twitter: {
    card: "summary_large_image",
  },
};

The underrated feature: generated OG images. Drop an opengraph-image.tsx file next to any route and Next.js renders a 1200×630 image on the edge — no designer needed for every blog post:

// app/blog/[slug]/opengraph-image.tsx
import { ImageResponse } from "next/og";

export const size = { width: 1200, height: 630 };
export const contentType = "image/png";

export default async function OgImage({ params }) {
  const post = await getPost(params.slug);
  return new ImageResponse(
    (
      <div
        style={{
          display: "flex",
          flexDirection: "column",
          width: "100%",
          height: "100%",
          justifyContent: "center",
          padding: 80,
          background: "#0a0a0a",
          color: "#fff",
        }}
      >
        <div style={{ fontSize: 64, fontWeight: 700 }}>{post.title}</div>
        <div style={{ fontSize: 28, marginTop: 24, color: "#a1a1aa" }}>
          example.com/blog
        </div>
      </div>
    ),
    size,
  );
}

Checklist:

• OG title/description/image on every shareable page
• Image is 1200×630; text on it is readable at thumbnail size
• twitter.card set to summary_large_image
• Preview checked in opengraph.xyz or the LinkedIn Post Inspector