Meta tags explained: types, examples and what matters
What meta tags are, the ones Google actually uses, a copy-paste example for any page, and the old tags you can safely delete.
Meta tags are short pieces of code in the <head> of a web page. Visitors never see them on the page itself, but search engines, browsers and social networks read them to decide how your page is indexed, how it looks in Google, and what appears when someone shares your link.
There are dozens of meta tags in the wild, but only a handful still matter. This guide shows you which ones, with a complete example you can copy, and which old tags you can safely delete.
What a meta tag looks like
Every meta tag sits between <head> and </head> and follows the same pattern: a name (or property) that says what the tag is, and a content value:
<meta name="description" content="Free online tools to check and improve your website's SEO.">Two close relatives aren't technically meta tags but do the same kind of job, so they're included here: the <title> element and the <link rel="canonical"> tag.
The meta tags that matter (and what each one does)
| Tag | What it does | Does Google use it? |
|---|---|---|
<title> | The page's name: the blue headline in Google and the browser tab text | Yes, a strong signal of what the page is about |
meta name="description" | A summary Google may show under the title | For the snippet, not for rankings |
meta name="robots" | Tells search engines whether to index the page and follow its links | Yes, and it's obeyed |
meta name="viewport" | Makes the page fit phone screens | Yes: Google indexes the mobile version of your site |
meta charset | Tells the browser which text encoding to use (UTF-8) | Needed so text shows correctly |
link rel="canonical" | Names the main version of a page when several URLs show the same content | Yes, as a strong hint |
meta property="og:…" | Open Graph: the title, text and image used on Facebook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp | No, but it shapes every share |
meta name="twitter:card" | How links look on X (Twitter) | No, social only |
Title
Strictly speaking, the title isn't a meta tag, but it's the most important tag in the head. Keep it around 50–60 characters, put the main topic first, and make every page's title unique. Google truncates by pixel width rather than characters, so check yours with the SERP Snippet Preview. There's more detail in how long should a title tag be.
Meta description
The meta description doesn't move your rankings, but it's your advert in the results, and a better advert earns more clicks from the same position. Google rewrites it when it thinks another sentence from your page answers the search better, so write a clear summary of about 150–155 characters and accept that Google won't always use it. Our guide to meta descriptions people actually click has a simple formula.
In our audit of 100 popular homepages, only 6% had no description at all, but 45% had one too long for Google's snippet, so the end of the message was cut off.
Robots meta tag
This is the one tag that can remove a page from Google, so treat it with care:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">: keep this page out of search results (useful for thank-you pages, internal search results and test pages).nofollow: don't follow the links on this page.- No robots tag at all means "index and follow", which is what you want for normal pages.
Two classic mistakes: leaving noindex on after a site goes live, and blocking a page in robots.txt and adding noindex. If robots.txt blocks the page, Google never sees the noindex tag. robots.txt vs noindex explains which to use when.
Viewport and charset
Both are one-line tags that every page needs. Without viewport, phones show a tiny zoomed-out desktop page, and since Google indexes the mobile version, that matters. charset="utf-8" stops special characters turning into gibberish.
Canonical
If the same page is reachable at several addresses (with and without www, with tracking parameters, or sorted in different orders), the canonical tag tells Google which one to show. A self-referencing canonical (a page pointing to itself) is a safe default for every page.
Open Graph and X cards
These don't affect Google rankings, but they control what people see when your link is shared: without them, Facebook or WhatsApp may pick a random image or none at all. You need og:title, og:description, og:image (ideally 1200 × 630 pixels) and twitter:card. In our audit, 25% of homepages were missing at least one Open Graph tag and 22% had no X card. The Open Graph Generator shows a live preview before you publish.
A complete example you can copy
This is a sensible, complete <head> for a normal page. Replace the text and addresses with your own:
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Free Image Compressor: Shrink JPG and PNG Files</title>
<meta name="description" content="Compress JPG, PNG and WebP images in your browser. Free, private and no upload: files never leave your device.">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/image-compressor/">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:title" content="Free Image Compressor: Shrink JPG and PNG Files">
<meta property="og:description" content="Compress images in your browser. Free and private.">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/image-compressor/">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/share-1200x630.png">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
</head>There's no robots tag because this page should be indexed. Add <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> only to pages you want kept out of Google.
If you'd rather not write it by hand, the Meta Tag Generator builds this block from a few fields, and the HTML Meta Tags tool gives you a full head template.
Old meta tags you can delete
Some tags were popular years ago and still sit in many themes, but search engines ignore them:
meta name="keywords": Google has ignored it since 2009, and it shows competitors exactly which keywords you're targeting. Still found on 23% of the sites in our audit.revisit-after,distribution,rating: general,copyright: no search engine relies on these.meta name="author": harmless, but it doesn't help rankings. A visible author bio does more for trust.
How to add meta tags on popular platforms
Most website builders add the tags for you, as long as you fill in the right fields:
- WordPress: use the SEO box of Yoast or Rank Math under each post. See meta tags for WordPress.
- Blogger: turn on search descriptions under Settings → Meta tags. See meta tags for Blogger for the theme code that adds social tags per post.
- Shopify: each product and collection has a "Search engine listing" section at the bottom. See meta tags for Shopify.
- Webflow: use the SEO and Open Graph settings for each page, or CMS fields for collection pages. See meta tags for Webflow.
- React and Next.js: React can render tags directly from components (React 19), and Next.js uses its Metadata API.
How to check your meta tags
Open any page, right-click and choose View page source, then look near the top for <title> and the <meta lines. To check every tag at once, run the page through the free Website SEO Audit. It flags missing, duplicate and over-long tags and explains each fix.
FAQ
Do meta tags help SEO? Some do. The title is a strong signal, the robots tag decides whether a page can appear at all, and viewport and canonical support how Google indexes your site. The meta description and social tags don't change rankings, but they affect how many people click and share.
How many meta tags should a page have? There's no target number. Every page needs the essentials above; extra tags don't add value.
Can Google ignore my meta description? Yes. Google often writes its own snippet from your page when it better matches the search. A clear, specific description makes it more likely Google uses yours.
Do I still need meta keywords? No. Delete them: they're ignored and they reveal your keyword strategy.