HTML Meta Tags | HTML Tutorial

The <meta> tags in HTML provide metadata about the HTML document. Metadata is data (information) about data. <meta> tags always go inside the document's <head> tag and are typically used to specify the character set, page description, keywords, author, and other metadata.

Below is an example HTML code snippet that includes various types of <meta> tags commonly used:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8"> <!-- Character encoding -->
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <!-- Responsive design -->
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge"> <!-- Internet Explorer compatibility -->
    <meta name="description" content="This is a description of the web page"> <!-- Description for search engines -->
    <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, CSS, JavaScript"> <!-- Keywords for search engines -->
    <meta name="author" content="Your Name"> <!-- Author name -->
    <title>Document</title>
</head>
<body>
    <!-- Your content here -->
</body>
</html>

Explanation of each meta tag:

Character Encoding (charset): <meta charset="UTF-8"> sets the character encoding for the webpage. UTF-8 is the most common and recommended.
Viewport: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> sets the viewport to scale the page to the screen width, useful for responsive design.
IE Compatibility: <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge"> specifies that the page should be rendered using the latest rendering engine available on Internet Explorer.
Description: <meta name="description" content="This is a description of the web page"> provides a brief description of the webpage, which search engines may use in search results.
Keywords: <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, CSS, JavaScript"> specifies keywords for the webpage, which were historically used by search engines but are less relevant today.
Author: <meta name="author" content="Your Name"> indicates the name of the author of the webpage.

How to add favicon in HTML?

A favicon is a small icon that appears next to your website's title in browser tabs. It helps in branding and easy identification among multiple tabs.

Step 1: Create/Choose Favicon

Make a square image, usually 16x16 or 32x32 pixels, in .ico format. You can create a favicon from this website.

Step 2: Upload Favicon

Place the .ico file in your website's root directory, where index.html is located.

Step 3: Update HTML

Insert the following code in the <head> section of your index.html file:

<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">

Replace favicon.ico with your file's path if different.

Step 4: Test

Open your site in different browsers to make sure the favicon appears.

In the next tutorial, we will talk about more HTML head elements.