🤔 The Common Mix-Up
A frequent question we hear is: "I updated my logo in Search Atlas Brand Vault, but search previews still show the old logo. I've cleared every cache layer and it won't update." If this sounds familiar, the good news is that nothing is broken. The issue is simply that two different features are being confused. Brand Vault and Open Graph serve completely different purposes, and only one of them affects what appears in search and social previews.
🎨 What Brand Vault Actually Does
Brand Vault is an internal Search Atlas feature. It stores your brand assets so they appear consistently inside the platform and in the reports and documents you generate.
- White-label reports that display your logo instead of ours.
- Exported PDFs and dashboards shared with clients.
- Consistent branding across the tools you use day to day.
Behind the scenes, Brand Vault also feeds Search Atlas's internal Knowledge Graph, which supplies your brand information to AI-powered tools such as OTTO and Content Genius. Note that this internal Knowledge Graph is not Google's Knowledge Graph or Knowledge Panel — despite the similar name, the Search Atlas version lives entirely inside the platform.
Brand Vault never edits your live website's code. Because of this, it has no influence over how your site appears in Google search results, link previews, or social media cards.
🌐 What Controls Search and Social Previews
The logo or image shown when your page appears in search results or is shared on social platforms is controlled by Open Graph tags and related metadata in your website's HTML. The key tags include:
- og:image — the image used for social and link previews.
- og:title and og:description — the text shown alongside the image.
- Structured data (schema) logo — the logo Google may use in certain search features, such as the Knowledge Panel.
- Favicon — the small icon shown next to some search listings.
These tags live on your actual website, not inside Search Atlas. Updating Brand Vault will not change them. To update your search preview logo, you must update the metadata on your live site.
🛠️ How to Update Your Search Preview Logo
Follow these steps to correct an outdated preview image:
- Locate the Open Graph tags on your website. These are usually in the page header, managed through your CMS, theme settings, or an SEO plugin.
- Update the og:image URL to point to your new logo. Make sure the image meets recommended dimensions (at least 1200 x 630 pixels works well for most platforms).
- Update your structured data logo if your site uses organization schema, so Google references the correct image.
- Replace your favicon if the small search icon also needs updating.
- Publish the changes and confirm the new image loads when you view your page's source code.
♻️ Why Clearing Cache Isn't Enough
Clearing your website and browser cache is a good habit, but it does not solve this issue on its own. Search engines and social platforms keep their own separate cache of your page metadata. Even after your site is updated, the old image can linger until those external systems refresh.
To speed this up:
- Use the platform's sharing debugger or validation tools (offered by major search and social networks) to force a re-fetch of your updated metadata.
- Request re-indexing of the affected page through your search engine's webmaster tools.
- Allow time for search engines to recrawl, which can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
✅ Quick Reference
- Logo wrong in Search Atlas reports? Update Brand Vault.
- Logo wrong in search or social previews? Update the Open Graph tags and metadata on your website, then trigger a re-fetch.
- Still seeing the old image? Give external caches time to refresh and confirm the new image URL loads correctly.