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HTML <meta> Tag

Example

Describe the metadata of an HTML document:

<head>
<meta name="description" content="Free online tutorials">
<meta name="keywords" content="HTML,CSS,XML,JavaScript">
<meta name="author" content="tutorialpro">
<meta charset="UTF-8">
</head>

Browser Support

All major browsers support the <meta> tag.


Definition and Usage

Metadata is data (information) about data.

The <meta> tag provides metadata about the HTML document. Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but is machine parsable.

Meta elements are typically used to specify page description, keywords, document author, last modified, and other metadata.

Metadata can be used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), or other web services.


Tips and Notes

Note: The <meta> tag is often placed within the <head> area.

Note: Metadata is usually represented as name/value pairs.

Note: If the name attribute is not provided, the name part of the name/value pair will use the value of the http-equiv attribute.


Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

HTML5 does not support the scheme attribute.

In HTML5, a new charset attribute makes defining the character set easier:


Differences Between HTML and XHTML

In HTML, the <meta> tag has no closing tag.

In XHTML, the <meta> tag must be properly closed.


Examples

Example 1 - Define document keywords for search engines:

Example 2 - Define web page description:

Example 3 - Define page author:

Example 4 - Refresh the page every 30 seconds:


Attributes

Attribute Value Description
charset New character_set Defines the character encoding for the document.
content text Defines the metadata associated with either http-equiv or name.
http-equiv content-type <br>default-style <br>refresh Associates the content attribute with an HTTP header.
name application-name <br>author <br>description <br>generator keywords Associates the content attribute with a name.
scheme format/URI Not supported in HTML5. Defines a format for the value of the content attribute.

Event Attributes

The <meta> tag supports all HTML event attributes.


Related Articles

HTML Tutorial: HTML Head

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