HTML elements in a page's that describe the page to browsers, search engines and other software, such as . Visitors do not see them on the page, but they shape how the page appears in search results, social previews and browser tabs.

Meta tags

What goes in the head, which parts Google actually reads, and which exist only for social apps.

Meta tags are machine-facing labels. A browser uses a few to render the page, Google uses a short list to understand and display it, and social platforms read their own set to build link previews. Everything else is ignored: Google's documentation says plainly that it ignores meta tags it does not support.

Meta tags Google Search supports

Tag	What Google does with it
<title>	Not a meta tag, but the main source for the title link in results.
<meta name="description">	A short summary; may be used for the snippet.
<meta name="robots"> / "googlebot"	Indexing and serving rules such as noindex, nosnippet, max-image-preview.
<meta name="googlebot" content="notranslate">	Do not offer a translation in results.
<meta name="google" content="nopagereadaloud">	Stop Google text-to-speech services reading the page aloud.
<meta name="google-site-verification">	Verify ownership in Search Console (case-sensitive).
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"> / <meta charset>	Declares the character encoding.
<meta http-equiv="refresh">	Redirects after a delay. Google advises a server-side redirect instead.
<meta name="viewport">	Tells the browser how to render on mobile; relevant to mobile-friendliness.
<meta name="rating" content="adult">	Labels explicit content for SafeSearch.

Tags Google ignores

<meta name="keywords">: ignored for ranking and everything else.
The HTML lang attribute: Google detects a page's language from its text. (Keep lang for screen readers and browsers, and use hreflang for alternate versions.)
<link rel="next"> and <link rel="prev">: no longer used for indexing.
<meta name="google" content="nositelinkssearchbox">: the sitelinks search box no longer exists.
Anything not on Google's supported list, such as author, generator or revisit-after, is simply ignored by Search.

Tags for social previews, not Search

Open Graph (og:*) and X card (twitter:*) tags control link previews on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Slack, Discord and messaging apps. They do not affect Google rankings. Make them with the Open Graph generator and Twitter card generator.

A complete, minimal head

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Seeded Rye Loaf Recipe | Ridgeway Bakes</title>
<meta name="description" content="A dense, tangy seeded rye you can bake in a standard tin: ingredients by weight, a two-day timeline and how to tell when it is done.">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://ridgewaybakes.example/recipes/seeded-rye">
<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" sizes="48x48">
<meta property="og:type" content="article">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://ridgewaybakes.example/recipes/seeded-rye">
<meta property="og:title" content="Seeded Rye Loaf Recipe">
<meta property="og:description" content="Ingredients by weight and a two-day timeline.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://ridgewaybakes.example/og/seeded-rye.jpg">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">

Build yours with the meta tag generator, or audit an existing page with the meta tag checker.

Questions

What are meta tags?

HTML elements in a page's <head> that describe the page to browsers, search engines and other software, such as <meta name="description">. Visitors do not see them on the page, but they shape how the page appears in search results, social previews and browser tabs.

Which meta tags matter most for SEO?

The <title> element (technically not a meta tag), the meta description, the robots meta tag when you need to restrict indexing, and the viewport tag for mobile. Google ignores tags it does not support, including meta keywords.

Are Open Graph tags meta tags?

Yes, they are written as <meta property="og:…">, but Google Search does not use them. They are read by Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, messaging apps and many other link-preview systems.

Can I add meta tags with JavaScript?

Google advises caution: it recommends avoiding JavaScript to inject or change meta tags, and social crawlers generally do not run JavaScript at all. Put them in the server-rendered HTML.

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Reference