What is a meta description? The meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a web page. Search engines such as Google often display the meta description in search results, which can influence click-through rates. Meta-descriptions play a big role in search results. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, a meta description is the snippet of information below the link of a search result. Its purpose is to describe the contents of the page to the searcher. The end goal is to convince and persuade the searcher to click through to your website.
- Meta Description Wordpress
- Meta Description Character Count
- Meta Description Checker
- Meta Description Tag
- Meta Description Counter
- Meta Description Length
- Meta Description is a HTML tag that is part of the Meta Elements used to specify and summarize the content of a webpage. Meta Description tags are important because search engines use them as snippets in search results. Learn more in our guide.
- A meta description is an html tag which consists of a snippet of text (up to around 155 characters) that summarizes a page’s content. Search engines show meta descriptions underneath the page titles in search results.
Example
Describe metadata within an HTML document:
<meta charset='UTF-8'>
<meta name='description'>
<meta name='keywords'>
<meta name='author'>
<meta name='viewport'>
</head>
More 'Try it Yourself' examples below.
Definition and Usage
The <meta> tag defines metadata about an HTML document. Metadata is data (information) about data.
<meta> tags always go inside the <head> element, and are typically used to specify character set, page description, keywords, author of the document, and viewport settings.
Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but is machine parsable.
Metadata is used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), and other web services.
There is a method to let web designers take control over the viewport (the user's visible area of a web page), through the <meta> tag (See 'Setting The Viewport' example below).
Browser Support
| Element | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <meta> | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Attributes
| Attribute | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| charset | character_set | Specifies the character encoding for the HTML document |
| content | text | Specifies the value associated with the http-equiv or name attribute |
| http-equiv | content-security-policy content-type default-style refresh | Provides an HTTP header for the information/value of the content attribute |
| name | application-name author description generator keywords viewport | Specifies a name for the metadata |
Global Attributes
The <meta> tag also supports the Global Attributes in HTML.
More Examples
Define keywords for search engines:
Define a description of your web page:
Meta Description Wordpress
Define the author of a page:
Refresh document every 30 seconds:
Setting the viewport to make your website look good on all devices:
Setting the Viewport
The viewport is the user's visible area of a web page. It varies with the device - it will be smaller on a mobile phone than on a computer screen.
You should include the following <meta> element in all your web pages:
Meta Description Character Count
This gives the browser instructions on how to control the page's dimensions and scaling.
The width=device-width part sets the width of the page to follow the screen-width of the device (which will vary depending on the device).
The initial-scale=1.0 part sets the initial zoom level when the page is first loaded by the browser.
Here is an example of a web page without the viewport meta tag, and the same web page with the viewport meta tag:
Tip: If you are browsing this page with a phone or a tablet, you can click on the two links below to see the difference.
Meta Description Checker
With the viewport meta tag
Meta Description Tag
You can read more about the viewport in our Responsive Web Design - The Viewport Tutorial.
Related Pages
Meta Description Counter
HTML tutorial: HTML Head
Meta Description Length
HTML DOM reference: Meta Object
Default CSS Settings
None.