HTML 5 <meta> tag
Definition and Usage
The <meta> element provides meta-information about your page, such as
descriptions and keywords for search engines and refresh rates.
Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML 5
The scheme attribute is no loinger supported in HTML 5
HTML 5 has a new attribute, charset, which makes it easier to define charset.
In HTML 4.01 you would have to write:
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
but in HTML 5 it is enough to write:
<meta charset="ISO-8859-1">
Tips and Notes
Note: The <meta> tag always goes inside the head
element.
Note: Metadata is always passed as name/value pairs.
Note: One, and not more, of these attributes must be defined: charset,
http-equiv, name.
Note: The content attribute MUST be defined if the name or the
http-equiv attribute is defined. if none of these are defined, the content
attribute CANNOT be defined.
Examples
Define keywords for search engines:
<meta name="keywords" content="HTML, DHTML, CSS, XML,
XHTML, JavaScript, VBScript" /> |
Define a description of your web page:
<meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials
on HTML, CSS, XML, and XHTML" /> |
Define the last revision of your page:
<meta name="revised" content="Hege Refsnes,
6/10/99" /> |
Refresh page every 5 seconds:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5" /> |
Attributes
- 4: indicates if the attribute is defined in HTML 4.01
- 5: indicates if the attribute is defined in HTML 5
| Attribute |
Value |
Description |
4 |
5 |
| charset |
character encoding |
Defines the character encoding for the document |
|
5 |
| content |
some_text |
Defines meta information to be associated with http-equiv or name |
4 |
5 |
| http-equiv |
content-type
expires
refresh
set-cookie |
Connects the content attribute to an HTTP header |
4 |
5 |
| name |
author
description
keywords
generator
revised
others |
Connects the content attribute to a name |
4 |
5 |
| scheme |
some_text |
Defines a format to be used to interpret the value of the
content attribute. Not supported |
4 |
|
Standard Attributes
| class, contenteditable, contextmenu, dir, draggable, id,
irrelevant, lang, ref, registrationmark, tabindex, template, title |
Try-It-Yourself Demos
Document description
Information inside a meta element describes the document.
Document keywords
Information inside a meta element describes the document's keywords.
Redirect a user
This example demonstrates how to redirect a user if your site address has
changed.
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