Guide · Websites · For the owner whose links arrive bare

Why your website link shows no preview in WhatsApp, and the four tags, one size rule and ten-second test that fix it

Send a competitor's link in WhatsApp and it unfurls into a picture, a title and a line of text. Send yours and it sits there as a bare blue line. The difference is not WhatsApp favouring anyone; it is four lines in the website's code that Meta's own page spells out, plus a size rule and a test anyone can run from their phone. Here is what the page has to carry, and how to check it before the next campaign goes out.

Published 1 October 2026

What WhatsApp looks for

Meta's page says WhatsApp tries to preview a link whenever it can, in chats and in status, and relies on the website to describe itself in a standard way: four Open Graph tags placed in the head of the page, the part of the code the visitor never sees. Open Graph is the same labelling that Facebook, LinkedIn and most messaging apps read, so a site that gets this right for WhatsApp gets it right everywhere.

Title: The title of the page without branding. WhatsApp shows it in bold in the main text colour, in at most two lines.
Description: Shown smaller and in the secondary colour, one or two lines. Meta says about 80 characters is enough.
Canonical address: The clean address of the page, with no session values, tracking parameters or counters attached.
Image: A full web address to the picture used as the thumbnail. Meta's rules: under 600 KB, at least 300 pixels wide, and no wider than four times its height. A narrow banner strip fails; a photo or a square logo card passes.

The first 300 KB rule

Meta says the head containing these tags must appear within the first 300 KB of the page's code. The whole page may be larger, but if a heavy script or a block of inline styling pushes the tags past that point, WhatsApp never reads them. Sites built on page builders that inline a lot of code at the top are the usual victims.

Why it sometimes half-works

Meta's page is candid: WhatsApp makes a best attempt, sometimes relaxing the rules, looking for other tags, or falling back to a small preview with no picture. It then says plainly that this should not be relied on and is not guaranteed to keep working. A link that previews today because WhatsApp guessed well can stop previewing after an app update. Meeting the rules is the only stable answer.

Two technical details help whoever runs your site. WhatsApp fetches the page as an ordinary visitor would, announcing itself with a WhatsApp user agent that also says whether the recipient is on Android, iPhone or web, and it sends the recipient's language preference. A site that blocks unknown visitors, or serves a consent wall before the real page, can block the preview without anyone noticing; a multilingual site can serve the title and description in the recipient's language.

How to test it in thirty seconds

Open any chat on your phone and paste the link into the message box. Do not send yet.
Wait up to 10 seconds. Meta says WhatsApp fetches the page on the sender's behalf and shows the preview above the box. If nothing appears, one of the rules above is not met.
Check the size. If a preview appears but small and without a picture, Meta points at the image rules: size, width and aspect ratio.
Then send once it looks right. The same fix carries over to links sent from a business number, and to the first-link preview in a text message, which the message types guide mentions.

Questions

Our link previews on Facebook but not on WhatsApp. How is that possible?

Facebook is more forgiving about where the tags sit and how big the image is. WhatsApp requires the head within the first 300 KB, an image under 600 KB and at least 300 pixels wide, and a clean canonical address. Check those three first.

The preview shows an old picture. We changed it weeks ago.

WhatsApp fetches the page when the link is composed, so a changed image should show on a fresh send, provided the new image meets the rules. If the old one persists, the page may still be pointing at the old file in its image tag, or a cache in front of your site is still serving the old page.

Does a tracking link break the preview?

It can. Meta asks for a canonical address without session values, tracking parameters or counters. A shortened or tagged link also hides your domain from the customer, which is a trust cost on top of the preview cost.

Who fixes this, the WhatsApp provider or the web developer?

The web developer. Everything Meta lists lives in the website's code. A WhatsApp provider can tell you the preview is missing and run the test, but cannot change the page.

Sources

Meta's developer documentation: Link previews, read 1 October 2026.

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

Want every link your business sends to unfurl properly?

We set up a business's WhatsApp number on a proper system and, because we also build websites, check the pages it links to against Meta's preview rules before a campaign goes out, so the picture and title arrive with the message. A short call is the easiest way to see whether it fits your business.

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