HTML <meta> Tag
The HTML <meta> tag represents metadata for an HTML document.
Metadata can include document decription, keywords, author etc. It can also be used to refresh the page or set cookies.
Syntax
The <meta> tag is written as <meta> (no end tag) with exactly one of the name, http-equiv, and charset, attributes specified.
If either name or http-equiv is specified, then the content attribute must also be specified. Otherwise, it must be omitted.
Like this:
Or this:
The <meta> tag is placed between the start and end <head> tags.
Like this:
Examples
Character Encoding
You can use the <meta> tag to declare the character encoding of the document. In this example, we declare the document as using UTF-8.
Keywords & Description
You can use the <meta> tag to specify keywords for the document and/or a description.
Historically, search engines have used these elements to assist with their search results. The keywords value can provide keywords that are relevant to the article (even if they don't appear in the article), and can even be used to provide common misspellings. The description value can provide a description of the article. This is often displayed outside of the context of the article (such as in a search results page, email, etc) so it should provide a good, concise, overview of what the user can expect from the document.
Some search engines have disclosed that they now ignore these keywords in their algorithms. Despite this, keywords could potentially be used to good effect within a proprietary site-search function or other site functionality.
Author
You can use the <meta> tag to specify the author of the document.
Refresh Same Page
You can use the <meta> tag to refresh the page at regular intervals.
The following code will refresh a page every 5 minutes.
Refresh to New Page
The <iframe> element below uses the <meta> tag to refresh to a new page in 5 seconds.
To see this effect you might need to refresh this page.
Attributes
Attributes can be added to an HTML element to provide more information about how the element should appear or behave.
There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.
The <meta> element accepts the following attributes.
Element-Specific Attributes
This table shows the attributes that are specific to the <meta> tag/element.
| Attribute | Description | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Name for the property. Can be anything, however, HTML5 does specify some standard metadata names. Standard HTML5 metadata names include:
|
||||||||||||
| content | Specifies the property's value. | ||||||||||||
| charset | Specifies the character encoding used by the document. This is called a character encoding declaration. | ||||||||||||
| http-equiv | Used for http response message headers. For example http-equiv can be used to periodically refresh the page, redirect to another page, etc.
Possible values include:
|
Global Attributes
The following attributes are standard across all HTML5 elements. Therefore, you can use these attributes with the <meta> tag , as well as with all other HTML tags.
- accesskey
- class
- contenteditable
- contextmenu
- dir
- draggable
- dropzone
- hidden
- id
- inert
- itemid
- itemprop
- itemref
- itemscope
- itemtype
- lang
- spellcheck
- style
- tabindex
- title
- translate
For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.
Event Handler Content Attributes
Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.
Below are the standard HTML5 event handler content attributes.
Again, you can use any of these with the <meta> element, as well as any other HTML5 element.
- onabort
- oncancel
- onblur
- oncanplay
- oncanplaythrough
- onchange
- onclick
- oncontextmenu
- ondblclick
- ondrag
- ondragend
- ondragenter
- ondragexit
- ondragleave
- ondragover
- ondragstart
- ondrop
- ondurationchange
- onemptied
- onended
- onerror
- onfocus
- onformchange
- onforminput
- oninput
- oninvalid
- onkeydown
- onkeypress
- onkeyup
- onload
- onloadeddata
- onloadedmetadata
- onloadstart
- onmousedown
- onmousemove
- onmouseout
- onmouseover
- onmouseup
- onmousewheel
- onpause
- onplay
- onplaying
- onprogress
- onratechange
- onreadystatechange
- onscroll
- onseeked
- onseeking
- onselect
- onshow
- onstalled
- onsubmit
- onsuspend
- ontimeupdate
- onvolumechange
- onwaiting
For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.
Differences Between HTML 4 & HTML 5
HTML5 does not support the scheme attribute (HTML 4 supported it).
HTML5 introduced the charset attribute.
To see more detail on the two versions see HTML5 <meta> Tag and HTML4 <meta> Tag. Also check out the links to the official specifications below.
Template
Here's a template for the <meta> tag with all available attributes for the tag (based on HTML5). These are grouped into attribute types, each type separated by a space. In many cases, you will probably only need one or two (if any) attributes. Simply remove the attributes you don't need.
For more information on attributes for this tag, see HTML5 <meta> Tag and HTML4 <meta> Tag.
Tag Details
For more details about the <meta> tag, see HTML5 <meta> Tag and HTML4 <meta> Tag.
Specifications
Here are the official specifications for the <meta> element.
- HTML5 Specification (W3C)
- HTML Living Standard (WHATWG)
- Current W3C Draft (the next version that is currently being worked on)
- HTML 4 (W3C)
What's the Difference?
W3C creates "snapshot" specifications that don't change once defined. So the HTML5 specification won't change once it becomes an official recommendation. WHATWG on the other hand, develops a "living standard" that is updated on a regular basis. In general, you will probably find that the HTML living standard will be more closely aligned to the current W3C draft than to the HTML5 specification.