HTML &lt; meta &gt; Tag

Example

Describe metadata within an HTML document:
<head>
<meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials" />
<meta name="keywords" content="HTML,CSS,XML,JavaScript" />
<meta name="author" content="Hege Refsnes" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" />
</head>

Definition and Usage

Metadata is information about data.

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

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

The <meta> tag always goes inside the head element.

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

Browser Support

The <meta> tag is supported in all major browsers.

Differences Between HTML and XHTML

In HTML the <meta> tag has no end tag.

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

Tips and Notes

Note: Metadata is always passed as name/value pairs.

Required Attributes

DTD indicates in which HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 DTD the attribute is allowed. S=Strict, T=Transitional, and F=Frameset.

Attribute	Value	Description	DTD
content	text	Specifies the content of the meta information	STF

Optional Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description	DTD
http-equiv	content-type content-style-type expires refresh set-cookie	Provides an HTTP header for the information in the content attribute	STF
name	author description keywords generator revised others	Provides a name for the information in the content attribute	STF
scheme	format/URI	Specifies a scheme to be used to interpret the value of the content attribute	STF

Standard Attributes

The <meta> tag supports the following standard attributes:

Attribute	Value	Description	DTD
dir	rtl ltr	Specifies the text direction for the content in an element	STF
lang	language_code	Specifies a language code for the content in an element	STF
xml:lang	language_code	Specifies a language code for the content in an element, in XHTML documents	STF