Reference · Beginner
The meta element
Add document metadata such as encoding, viewport behavior, and descriptions without treating metadata as a ranking guarantee.
- Author
- Editorial team
- Reviewer
- Publication review pending
- Review tier
- 180-day
Definition
The meta element represents metadata that cannot be expressed by another
dedicated metadata element such as title or link.
Common syntax
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<meta name="description" content="A concise, page-specific summary." />Context and attributes
Place metadata in head. The character encoding should appear early. Common
forms use charset or matching name and content values.
Practical consequences
The viewport declaration lets responsive CSS use the device-width layout viewport. A description can be considered for search presentation, but a retrieval system may choose different visible text.
Common misuse
Do not add unsupported names, repeat keyword lists, or claim that one tag guarantees indexing. Metadata must match the visible page and production URL.