At Moz, we strive to include social media metadata in all new pieces of content that we publish. This allows us to optimize for sharing Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinerest by defining exactly how titles, descriptions, images and more appear in social streams.
Think of it as conversion rate optimization for social exposure.
The implications for SEO are also significant. We know from experience and studies that the right data, including optimized images, helps content to spread, which often leads to increased links and mentions. We also know from correlation studies that content with higher social metrics exhibits many of the same qualities as content that performs well in search results.
Knowing exactly which social meta tags to include can be confusing even to experienced webmasters.
This post by Micheal King is a huge help, and Wordpress publishers who use
Yoast's SEO plugin are well ahead of the game.
For the rest of us, consider the different structures supported by the major social platforms:
- Twitter Cards: Summaries, Images, Galleries, Apps, Video, Audio, and Products
- Pinterest Rich Pins: Products, Recipes, Movies, and Articles
- Google+: Articles, Blog, Book, Event, Local Business, Organization, Person, Product, and Reviews
- Facebook: Articles, Photos, Audio, Video, and more
To help ease this problem, I created four social media tag templates that you can fill out, customize for your own use, and share with your team and others.
How to use these templates
Simply copy and paste the template into the text editor of your choice. Make sure to replace any orange or green text with your own data, and customize, eliminate or add any tags you find necessary.
The first three of these templates are optimized using a typical "article" markup and data, ideal for blog posts and most written content. The final template contains markup for product pages.For other post types, such as book or recipes, refer to documentation linked at the end of this post for reference on what to customize.
When you are done, don't forget to test and apply for approval.
1. The Minimal Template
This slimmed back version runs lean and fast. It contains a bare minimum of data for optimized sharing across Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.
Title tags and meta descriptions are included even though they aren't technically social media meta tags. This is because they can be used by Google+ and other social media platforms, and it is best practice to include them on every page you publish.
2: The Standard Template
The standard template represents a more robust implementation of social tags and is meant to work across all platforms. In addition to all of the features of the mimimal template above, the standard template includes the following:
- The basic Twitter Summary card
- Twitter thumbnail image
- Facebook Page Insights
3: The Full Monty
This is the monster! In addition to all the data contained in the standard template, the full template contains:
- Google Authorship and Publisher Markup. Although this data doesn't change your content appearance in Google+, it potentially add links to your Google+ pages in search results.
- Schema.org article markup
- Twitter Summary card with large image
- Expanded Open Graph article data
Bonus: The Product Template
For merchants, product markup is very popular, and usually easy for developers to implement in their shopping cart software. The product template differs from article markup in only a few ways:
- Modified <html> tag to reflect schema.org product data
- Twitter Product Card includes required data labels
- Open Graph data includes price and currency data
Tools for testing and approval
Tips and best practices
Optimizing for images
The image you link to in your social data does not actually have to be on the page, but it should represent your content well. The image allows you to controll what people see when they share your content, so it's important to use quality images.
Every social platform has different standards for sizing. Typically, it's easier to keep it simple and choose one image size that will work for all services.
- Twitter thumbnail: 120x120px
- Twitter large image: 280x150px
- Facebook: Standards vary, but an image at least 200x200px works best. Facebook recommends large images up to 1200px wide.
In short, larger images offer you the most flexibility. When in doubt, test each page using the appropriate tool below to see exactly how your images will appear in snippits.
The importance of Open Graph data
If you could choose only one type of meta data to include, your best bet is Open Graph. That's because all the platforms can use it as a fallback, including Twitter to a large degree.
Facebook page insights
The meta property "fb:admins" requires that you enter your numeric Facebook id number, and gives you access to analytics about how your website content is shared on Facebook. Read more about Page Insights, including how to set it up and discover your numeric id.
Further resources
Use these templates as a starting point, but you can customize them in millions of ways. A few valuable resources to aid your journey:
What are your best tips for optimizing your content for sharing? Let us know in the comments below.
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