What are meta tags
Meta tags are HTML elements placed in a page’s <head> section. They are not displayed on the page itself, but provide important information to search engines, browsers, and social networks.
Meta tags affect how your page appears in search results and when shared on social media, as well as how a browser interprets it.
Why meta tags matter
The main purposes of meta tags are:
- SEO — title and description form the search snippet
- Social networks — Open Graph tags control the preview when a page is shared
- Crawling — the robots meta tag controls indexing
- Encoding — charset specifies the page’s character encoding
- Responsiveness — viewport controls display on mobile devices
Key meta tags
Title (page title)
<title>Название страницы | Бренд</title>The most important tag for SEO. It appears in the browser tab title and in the search snippet. Optimal length: 50—60 characters.
Meta description
<meta name="description" content="Описание страницы до 160 символов." />The page description in the search snippet. It does not directly affect rankings, but it increases CTR. Optimal length: 130—160 characters.
Meta robots
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />Controls page indexing and whether crawlers follow links.
Viewport (mobile devices)
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />Required for proper display on mobile devices. Without it, the page looks like a desktop page on a smartphone.
Charset
<meta charset="UTF-8" />Specifies the page’s character encoding. UTF-8 supports all languages of the world.
Open Graph (for social networks)
<meta property="og:title" content="Заголовок для репоста" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Описание для репоста" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg" />Check meta tags with reChecker
Use Meta Tag Checker to analyze all the meta tags on a page. The tool checks:
- Whether title and description are present, and their length
- Whether robots directives are correct
- Open Graph and Twitter Card tags
- Whether viewport and charset are present
FAQ
Does meta description affect rankings? Not directly — Google does not use description as a ranking factor. However, a good description increases CTR, which indirectly improves rankings.
How many meta tags can I use? There are no technical limits. However, excessive tags are a sign of poor optimization. Focus on the ones that really matter: title, description, robots, viewport, and Open Graph.
What should I do if the title is duplicated across multiple pages? Duplicate titles are a serious SEO problem. Each page should have a unique title that reflects its content.