Meta tags live in the <head> of a page. Visitors don't see them, but search engines, browsers and social networks read them to decide how to show and handle the page. You don't need many, but the ones you need should be right.
The meta tags that matter
1. Title tag
Technically an element, not a meta tag, but it belongs on the list. It's the headline in search results and one of the strongest on-page signals.
<title>Waterproof Trail Running Shoes | Example Co</title>See title tag length.
2. Meta description
Doesn't affect ranking, but often becomes your snippet in search results.
<meta name="description" content="Grippy, waterproof trail shoes from $129. Free returns for 60 days.">3. Meta robots
Controls indexing and snippets. Only needed when you want to change the default (index, follow).
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">See the noindex tag.
Also important
4. Viewport
Makes the page display properly on phones. Essential since Google indexes the mobile version.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">5. Canonical link
A link element rather than a meta tag, but it does a similar job: it tells Google which address is the main version. See what is a canonical tag.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/trail-shoes/">6. Charset
Tells the browser how to read the text. Put it first in the head.
<meta charset="utf-8">7. Open Graph and Twitter tags
Control link previews on social media and messaging apps. See Open Graph tags.
8. Hreflang
Only for sites with several language or country versions. See hreflang tags.
Meta tags you can skip
| Tag | Why skip it |
|---|---|
meta keywords | Google has ignored it for well over a decade |
meta revisit-after | Never supported by Google |
meta rating (except adult content) | Only used to flag explicit content for SafeSearch |
meta author | Not used for ranking; use Article schema for authors |
meta generator | Just reveals your CMS |