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.

The <meta> element accepts the following attributes.

Attribute Description

name

Name for the property. Can be anything, however, HTML5 does specify some standard metadata names. Standard HTML5 metadata names include:

Name	Description
`application-name`	Must be a short free-form string giving the name of the Web application that the page represents. If the page is not a Web application, the `application-name` metadata name must not be used. There must not be more than one meta element with its name attribute set to the value `application-name` per document. Browsers/user agents may use the application name in UI in preference to the page's title, since the title might include status messages and the like relevant to the status of the page at a particular moment in time instead of just being the name of the application.
`author`	Free-form string giving the name of one of the page's authors.
`description`	Free-form string that describes the page. The value must be appropriate for use in a directory of pages, e.g. in a search engine. There must not be more than one `meta` element with its `name` attribute set to the value `description` per document.
`generator`	Free-form string that identifies one of the software packages used to generate the document. This value must not be used on hand-authored pages.
`keywords`	The value must be a set of comma-separated tokens, each of which is a keyword relevant to the page. For example, keywords for the current page could include "html5 meta tag, element, metadata, meta data, keyword, keywords, description, generator, application-name, author"

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:

content-language
content-type
default-style
refresh

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML elements. Therefore, you can use these attributes with the <meta> tag , as well as with all other HTML tags.

accesskey
autocapitalize
class
contenteditable
data-*
dir
draggable
hidden
id
inputmode
is
itemid
itemprop
itemref
itemscope
itemtype
lang
part
slot
spellcheck
style
tabindex
title
translate

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handlers

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.

onabort
onauxclick
onblur
oncancel
oncanplay
oncanplaythrough
onchange
onclick
onclose
oncontextmenu
oncopy
oncuechange
oncut
ondblclick
ondrag
ondragend
ondragenter
ondragexit
ondragleave
ondragover
ondragstart
ondrop
ondurationchange
onemptied
onended
onerror
onfocus
onformdata
oninput
oninvalid
onkeydown
onkeypress
onkeyup
onlanguagechange
onload
onloadeddata
onloadedmetadata
onloadstart
onmousedown
onmouseenter
onmouseleave
onmousemove
onmouseout
onmouseover
onmouseup
onpaste
onpause
onplay
onplaying
onprogress
onratechange
onreset
onresize
onscroll
onsecuritypolicyviolation
onseeked
onseeking
onselect
onslotchange
onstalled
onsubmit
onsuspend
ontimeupdate
ontoggle
onvolumechange
onwaiting
onwheel

Most event handler content attributes can be used on all HTML elements, but some event handlers have specific rules around when they can be used and which elements they are applicable to.

For more detail, see HTML event handler content attributes.