# Twitter cards

Category: [On-Page & Content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/on-page-content/) › [Titles, meta tags & snippets](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/on-page-content/titles-meta-snippets/) · Also known as: X cards

**Twitter cards**, now called X cards, are meta tags in a page's `<head>` that control how a shared link looks as a preview on X, with title, description and image. They affect the preview on X and are not a signal for Google Search.

## How do they work?

`twitter:card` sets the card type. Common values are `summary`, with a small image, and `summary_large_image`, with a large landscape image. `twitter:title`, `twitter:description` and `twitter:image` add the content. When `twitter:title`, `twitter:description` or `twitter:image` is missing, X falls back to `og:title`, `og:description` and `og:image`, according to the archived Twitter documentation. The Open Graph protocol requires four properties on every page: `og:title`, `og:type`, `og:image` and `og:url`.

The original cards documentation is no longer available on the current X developer pages, so this entry relies on an archived copy. The name dates from before Twitter became X. The tags are still prefixed `twitter:`.

## Example

```html
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Page title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Short description.">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.example.com/preview.jpg">
```

## Common mistakes

The image URL is relative, not public, blocked by robots.txt or does not return status 200. The preview then fails. Sharing the public URL on X shows what arrives.

## Related terms

- [Open Graph](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/open-graph/index.md)
- [Meta tags](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-tags/index.md)

## Sources

- [The Open Graph protocol](https://ogp.me/)
- [Twitter Cards and X sharing – The SEO Framework (secondary)](https://kb.theseoframework.com/kb/twitter-cards-and-x-sharing/)
- [Twitter Cards meta tags – Simplified eLearning (secondary)](https://simplifiedelearning.in/how-to-optimize-twitter-cards-meta-tags/)
- [Cards Markup Tag Reference – Twitter Developer Platform (archived copy, Internet Archive 2024)](https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-for-websites/cards/overview/markup)

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Last updated: October 7, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/twitter-cards/