The <meta/> Tag in HTML 5
The <meta/>
tag is used to define metadata for the HTML document or directives for the HTTP protocol. HTML metatag
elements have a content
attribute and either a name
attribute for document metadata or an http-equiv
attribute for protocol directives.
<meta http-equiv="..." content="..."/> <meta name="..." content="..."/> <meta itemprop="..." content="..."/>
See the HTML <meta> tag list for some of the values that can be coded for the name
attribute or the http-equiv
attribute. Other metadata can be expressed using specific HTML tags, such as:
List of <meta> tags in HTML 5
Most Common Metatags
The most common HTML metatags include:
Metatags for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- <meta name="description"/> tag
- <meta name="google"/> tag
- <meta name="googlebot"/> tag
- <meta name="keywords"/> tag
- <meta name="robots"/> tag
- <meta name="verify"/> tag
Metatags for HTML pages on Mobile / Handheld Devices
- <link rel="apple-touch-icon/> tag for Web Clips
- <meta name="format-detection"/> tag
- <meta name="HandheldFriendly"/> tag
- <meta name="viewport"/> tag
Metatags for Apps on Mobile / Handheld Devices
- <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable"/> tag
- <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style"/> tag
- <link rel="apple-touch-startup-image/> tag
<meta http-equiv="..."/> tags
- <meta http-equiv="default-style"/> tag
- <meta http-equiv="refresh"/> tag
- <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control"/> tag
- <meta http-equiv="Content-Disposition"/> tag
- <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"/> tag
- <meta http-equiv="Expires"/> tag
- <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible"/> tag
Less common HTML metatags include: