Meta Tags for SEO

Several <meta> tags influence how search engines index and display your pages. The description meta tag provides a summary of the page content; search engines may display it as the snippet below the title in results. The robots meta tag instructs crawlers whether to index the page and follow its links.

Other SEO-relevant Meta Tags

The author tag names the content creator. The keywords tag was once important but is now ignored by all major search engines. The canonical link (<link rel="canonical">) tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page — essential for avoiding duplicate content penalties when the same content is accessible at multiple URLs.

description — Page summary (150–160 chars)
robots — index/noindex, follow/nofollow
canonical — Preferred URL for SEO

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

  <title>Learn HTML — Web Dev Academy</title>

  <!-- SEO description (150-160 chars ideal) -->
  <meta name="description"
    content="Master HTML from the ground up with practical examples and exercises. Perfect for beginners and intermediate developers.">

  <!-- Author -->
  <meta name="author" content="Jane Doe">

  <!-- Crawler directives -->
  <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

  <!-- Canonical URL -->
  <link rel="canonical" href="https://webdevacademy.com/learn/html/">
</head>
<body>...</body>
</html>

HTML

Full Editor

Pro Tip

Write your meta description as a compelling call-to-action that entices users to click — even though it does not directly boost rankings, a well-written description improves click-through rate, which is a positive ranking signal.

Related Resources

HTML Reference

Complete tag & property list

HTML How-To Guides

Step-by-step practical guides

HTML Exercises

Practice what you've learned