--- title: "Link Preview Statistics: 50.7% of Websites Set No Image" url: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews description: "Link preview statistics: 50.7% of website homepages set no preview image for shared links, and the 10,000 most visited sites sit at 50.6%. See the data." lang: en --- Share Share on X: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fwebsites-missing-og-image-previews&text=50.7%25%20of%20Websites%20Have%20No%20Preview%20Image%20Set%20for%20Links%20Shared%20on%20Social%20Media%20and%20Chat Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fwebsites-missing-og-image-previews Share on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fwebsites-missing-og-image-previews Share on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fwebsites-missing-og-image-previews&title=50.7%25%20of%20Websites%20Have%20No%20Preview%20Image%20Set%20for%20Links%20Shared%20on%20Social%20Media%20and%20Chat **50.7%** of website homepages have no preview image set for shared links, so when someone shares the link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack or iMessage, the site owner has not chosen the picture people see. The 10,000 most visited websites do no better, at 50.6%. Analysis of 15,469,112 homepages · the public HTTP Archive crawl, September 2026 ## Key Findings 1. 1. **50.7%** of website homepages have no preview image set for shared links, the picture that appears when a link is posted on social media or sent in a chat. Copy stat 2. 2. **50.6%** of the 10,000 most visited websites have no preview image set, the same rate as small business websites at 50.5%. Copy stat 3. 3. Websites ranked 10,000 to 1 million miss the preview image most often, at **54.6%**. Copy stat 4. 4. Website homepages skip the shared-link preview image more than three times as often as the browser tab icon: **50.7%** against 14.1%. Copy stat 5. 5. **7,846,467** website homepages have no preview image set for shared links. Copy stat ## Summary A happy customer pastes a landscaper's website link into the neighborhood Facebook group with a glowing recommendation. The post shows a bare web address, or a stretched crop of the company logo, next to a competitor's link with a big photo of a finished garden. The neighbors click the photo. That preview card is built from a few tags in the page code called Open Graph tags. Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Slack, WhatsApp and iMessage read them to show a title, a short description and an image whenever a link is shared. The og:image tag sets the picture. For a local business, many recommendations travel as shared links in texts, group chats and social posts, so the preview is often the first thing a new customer sees. Half the web leaves it to chance. **50.7%** of website homepages have no og:image tag, and the most visited websites skip it just as often as small ones: 50.6% of the top 10,000 against 50.5% of small business websites. ## What we measured We used the September 2026 HTTP Archive, a public dataset that tests millions of websites every month and records the code of each homepage. We read the Open Graph tags on 15,469,112 mobile homepages and counted those with no preview image tag: og:image, or its variants og:image:url and og:image:secure_url. We grouped homepages by popularity using Google's Chrome UX Report: the 10,000 most visited websites, websites ranked 10,000 to 1 million, and websites outside the top million, where most small and local business websites sit. We compared the result with a second brand basic set in the same part of the page, the favicon, the small icon shown in browser tabs. ## Half the web leaves the preview image to chance 50.7% of website homepages have no preview image set for shared links. That is 7,846,467 homepages. The rate is almost flat across popularity: 50.6% of the 10,000 most visited websites have no preview image, and 50.5% of small business websites. Websites ranked 10,000 to 1 million stand out, missing the tag 54.6% of the time, four points more than the top 10,000 or the small business group. Share missing by site popularity Top 10,000 50.6% 10,000 to 1 million 54.6% Outside the top million 50.5% All homepages 50.7% Source: Suff Digital analysis of 15,469,112 homepages · the public HTTP Archive crawl, September 2026 | Site popularity | Homepages | No preview image | Share missing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Top 10,000 | 7,498 | 3,791 | 50.6% | | 10,000 to 1 million | 775,182 | 423,289 | 54.6% | | Outside the top million | 14,686,432 | 7,419,387 | 50.5% | | All homepages | 15,469,112 | 7,846,467 | 50.7% | The flat rate is the key result. The most visited websites, whose links get shared the most, skip the preview image just as often as small ones. That points to defaults rather than budget: a website gets a preview image when its theme or builder sets one automatically, and goes without when nobody fills in the field. ## Preview images are skipped far more often than favicons The favicon, the small icon in a browser tab, is another piece of brand display set in the same part of the page code. 14.1% of homepages declare no favicon, so the preview image is missed more than three times as often. The pattern holds at every level of popularity. No preview image by site popularity Top 10,000 50.6% 10,000 to 1 million 54.6% Outside the top million 50.5% All homepages 50.7% | Site popularity | No preview image | No favicon | | --- | --- | --- | | Top 10,000 | 50.6% | 10.7% | | 10,000 to 1 million | 54.6% | 14% | | Outside the top million | 50.5% | 14.1% | | All homepages | 50.7% | 14.1% | The difference is defaults. Most themes and website builders ask for a site icon during setup, while a share image is usually an optional field in an SEO plugin or a page settings panel that many owners never open. A missing og:image means the site owner is not choosing what people see when the link is shared. ## What this means for businesses that rely on shares and referrals Paste your homepage link into a message to yourself and look at the preview. If it shows no image or the wrong one, set a share image in your SEO plugin or site settings. Use a 1200 by 630 pixel image with your logo or a clear photo of your work, and check the preview again after you publish. Do the same for the pages people share most: services, offers, reviews and blog posts. Each page can have its own preview image, and most builders have a field for it in the page settings. Our small business web design (https://www.suffdigital.com/services/web-design/small-business) projects set a preview image for every page at launch, so every shared link carries a picture you chose. ## Embed this research Paste this on your site to embed the charts. It links back to the source automatically.

Source: 50.7% of Websites Have No Preview Image Set for Links Shared on Social Media and Chat - Suff Digital

## Cite this study APA Suff Digital. (2026). 50.7% of Websites Have No Preview Image Set for Links Shared on Social Media and Chat. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews Plain link 50.7% of Websites Have No Preview Image Set for Links Shared on Social Media and Chat - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews ## Frequently asked questions ### What percentage of websites have no Open Graph image? ### Do popular websites set preview images? ### What happens when a website has no og:image tag? ### What size should a link preview image be? ## Related studies - Web Design 15.2% of the Top 500,000 Websites Skip the Page Language Tag Screen Readers Need: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/website-template-basics - Web Design Google Fonts Is on More Websites Than WordPress: 42.8% vs 32%: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/most-used-website-fonts-services - Web Design 85% of Retail Store Websites Have No Terms of Service Page: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/online-store-terms-of-service-missing - Web Design 51.8% of Websites Send Phones the Same Image Files as Desktop Computers: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/responsive-images-srcset-usage ## Structured data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization", "name": "Suff Digital", "alternateName": "Suff Digital Marketing", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png", "contentUrl": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png", "caption": "Suff Digital" }, "image": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo" }, "description": "Suff Digital is a full-stack digital marketing agency that turns websites into predictable revenue engines, SEO, paid media, content, CRO, and web design built around revenue, not vanity metrics.", "slogan": "Digital marketing built for what's next.", "email": "hello@suffdigital.com", "telephone": "+1-629-236-0099", "foundingDate": "2022", "founder": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Suffoletto", "jobTitle": "Founder & CEO" }, "contactPoint": [ { "@type": "ContactPoint", "telephone": "+1-629-236-0099", "email": "hello@suffdigital.com", "contactType": "sales", "areaServed": "US", "availableLanguage": [ "en" ] } ], "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Nashville", "addressRegion": "TN", "postalCode": "37219", "addressCountry": "US" }, "areaServed": { "@type": "Country", "name": "United States" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/suff-digital/", "https://www.instagram.com/suffdigital/", "https://www.youtube.com/@suffdigitalmarketing", "https://www.tiktok.com/@suffdigital" ], "knowsAbout": [ "Search Engine Optimization", "Pay-Per-Click Advertising", "Paid Social Advertising", "Conversion Rate Optimization", "Web Design", "Digital PR", "Link Building", "Website Migration", "Website Maintenance and Support", "Technical SEO", "Local SEO", "AI Search Optimization" ], "hasOfferCatalog": { "@type": "OfferCatalog", "name": "Suff Digital Services", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/ppc" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Paid Social Advertising", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/paid-social" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/cro" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Web Design", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/web-design" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Digital PR & Link Building", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/digital-pr" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Website Migration", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-migration" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Website Maintenance & Support", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-maintenance" } } ] } }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#website", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/", "name": "Suff Digital", "inLanguage": "en-US", "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" } } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews#article", "headline": "50.7% of Websites Have No Preview Image Set for Links Shared on Social Media and Chat", "description": "50.7% of website homepages have no preview image set for shared links, so when someone shares the link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack or iMessage, the site owner has not chosen the picture people see. The 10,000 most visited websites do no better, at 50.6%.", "image": [ "https://www.suffdigital.com/images/suff-digital-share-16x9.jpg" ], "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews", "datePublished": "2026-09-24", "dateModified": "2026-09-24", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Suffoletto", "jobTitle": "Founder & CEO", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/who-we-are" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" }, "mainEntityOfPage": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews", "@type": "WebPage" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#website" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.suffdigital.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Resources", "item": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Data Studies", "item": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "50.7% of Websites Have No Preview Image Set for Links Shared on Social Media and Chat" } ] }, { "@type": "Dataset", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews#dataset", "name": "50.7% of Websites Have No Preview Image Set for Links Shared on Social Media and Chat", "description": "50.7% of website homepages have no preview image set for shared links, so when someone shares the link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack or iMessage, the site owner has not chosen the picture people see. The 10,000 most visited websites do no better, at 50.6%.", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews", "creator": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" }, "datePublished": "2026-09-24", "dateModified": "2026-09-24", "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "measurementTechnique": "HTTP Archive September 2026 mobile crawl, homepage code; Google's Chrome UX Report for site popularity" }, { "@type": "FAQPage", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/websites-missing-og-image-previews#faq", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What percentage of websites have no Open Graph image?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "50.7% of website homepages have no og:image tag, the preview image for shared links, in the September 2026 HTTP Archive." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do popular websites set preview images?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Only about half. 50.6% of the 10,000 most visited websites have no og:image tag, the same rate as small business websites at 50.5%." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What happens when a website has no og:image tag?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The site owner does not choose the picture shown when the link is shared: the preview may have no image, or the platform may pick one on its own. 50.7% of website homepages are in that position." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What size should a link preview image be?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "1200 by 630 pixels works across Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack and messaging apps. Set it as the og:image in your SEO plugin or page settings." } } ] } ] } ] ```