What metadata does this extract?

The page title, meta description, canonical URL, language, robots directives, author, favicon, content type, the Open Graph tags used by Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack and others (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type, og:site_name) and the Twitter/X card tags.

Why does my share preview look different on social media?

Platforms cache previews, sometimes for days. After changing your tags, use the platform’s own debugger (such as the Facebook Sharing Debugger or LinkedIn Post Inspector) to force a refresh. This tool always fetches the current version, apart from a short cache of about 30 minutes.

Does it run JavaScript on the page?

No. It reads the HTML the server returns, as most social platforms’ crawlers do. If your tags are only added by client-side JavaScript, they will be missing here — and probably on social media too.

How much of the page is downloaded?

At most the first 512 KB of HTML, after decompression. Metadata lives in the , so this is always enough, and the limit protects both Zurl and the site being checked. Images, scripts and stylesheets are never fetched.

What is a canonical URL?

The address a page declares as its preferred version with . Search engines use it to consolidate duplicates — for example the same article reachable with and without tracking parameters.

URL AnalysisFree · no sign-up

URL Metadata Extractor

See exactly what a page tells search engines and social networks. Paste a URL to read its title, description, canonical link, Open Graph and Twitter card tags — with a preview of the share card.

Zurl’s server makes the request for you. URLs are not logged; results are cached briefly.

How to use the URL Metadata Extractor

Step 1: Paste the page URL.
Step 2: Select Extract metadata.
Step 3: Review the title, description, Open Graph and Twitter tags, and copy or download them as JSON.

Why metadata matters

When a link is shared, the platform does not show the page — it shows a card built from the page’s metadata. A missing og:image means a plain text link; a missing description means the platform guesses, often badly. In search results, the <title> and meta description are the first thing people read.

A quick checklist

Title — unique per page, roughly 50–60 characters so it is not truncated.
Description — a plain-English summary of about 150 characters.
og:image — an absolute https URL, ideally 1200×630 pixels.
Canonical — present, absolute, and pointing at the URL you want indexed.
Robots — make sure a public page is not accidentally noindex.

Related checks

If the extractor reports an error instead of metadata, the URL checker explains why the page did not respond, and the redirect checker shows where the URL actually leads. To see the rendered page itself, capture it with URL screenshot.

Frequently asked questions

What metadata does this extract?: The page title, meta description, canonical URL, language, robots directives, author, favicon, content type, the Open Graph tags used by Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack and others (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type, og:site_name) and the Twitter/X card tags.
Why does my share preview look different on social media?: Platforms cache previews, sometimes for days. After changing your tags, use the platform’s own debugger (such as the Facebook Sharing Debugger or LinkedIn Post Inspector) to force a refresh. This tool always fetches the current version, apart from a short cache of about 30 minutes.
Does it run JavaScript on the page?: No. It reads the HTML the server returns, as most social platforms’ crawlers do. If your tags are only added by client-side JavaScript, they will be missing here — and probably on social media too.
How much of the page is downloaded?: At most the first 512 KB of HTML, after decompression. Metadata lives in the <head>, so this is always enough, and the limit protects both Zurl and the site being checked. Images, scripts and stylesheets are never fetched.
What is a canonical URL?: The address a page declares as its preferred version with <link rel="canonical">. Search engines use it to consolidate duplicates — for example the same article reachable with and without tracking parameters.