HTML <meta> tag
The word meta means about. With the <meta> tag you are providing information about data, or metadata. Specifically, information (things like a description, keywords, and author) about a particular form of data (a web document). This information can be used by search engines when they index your site. The <meta> tag can also be used to refresh a page, set the page's content type, and set when the page expires.
Metadata is not seen on a page but works behind the scenes.
NOTE: The <meta> tag has no end tag.
NOTE: The <meta> tag always goes in the head section of an HTML document.
Attributes
| Attribute | Description | Possible values |
|---|---|---|
| content | Required. Sets a value regarding some aspect of a webpage as specified by the name attribute. Example: You gave the name attribute the value "author", so the value you give to this attribute would be the name of the person who made the page | contentValue |
| http-equiv | Specifies HTTP header information regarding the value set for the content attribute. Uses include refreshing a page, setting the page's content type, setting when a page expires, and more. | content-type, expires, last-modified, refresh, set-cookie |
| name | Specifies what aspect of a webpage you are describing | author, description, generator, keywords, revised |
| scheme | Specifies the scheme to use to interpret the value set for the content attribute | theScheme |
Standard attributes
dir, lang, xml:lang
For more information on standard attributes, check out our HTML standard attributes reference page.
Event attributes
NONE
For more information on event attributes, check out our HTML event attributes reference page.
Examples
Specifying what program was used to create a page:
Specifying the author of a page:
Offering a description of a page:
Offering page keywords:
Reloading the current page every five seconds:
Setting the http-equiv attribute to "refresh", you can then specify how often to reload the page (in seconds) with the content attribute.
Page refreshing is common for time sensitive information such as currency pricing (as seen on the website www.xe.com which refreshes the homepage once every 60 seconds), news, and stocks.
Tips & notes
The <meta> tag's attributes work together - the value you assign to the content attribute depends on the value you assign to either the name or http-equiv attributes.
Remember to always use the content attribute. Without it, the <meta> tag will not have data to associate with the name or http-equiv attributes. The <meta> tag needs to have a name/value pair.