HEAD

A collection of HTML head elements.

Below are the essential tags for basic, minimalist websites:

  1. <meta charset="utf-8">
  2. <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">
  3. <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  4. <title>Page Title</title>

Elements

  1. <title>Page Title</title>
  2. <!-- The <base> tag defines a base URL for all relative links in the document --> 
  3. <base href="https://example.com/page.html">
  4. <style>
  5.   body { color: red; }
  6. </style>
  7. <script src="script.js"></script>

Meta Element

  1. <meta charset="utf-8">
  2. <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">
  3. <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
  4. <!-- The above 3 meta tags *must* come first in the head; any other head content must come *after* these tags -->
  5. <meta name="application-name" content="Application Name">
  6. <meta name="keywords" content="your,keywords,here,comma,separated,no,spaces">
  7. <meta name="description" content="150 chars">
  8. <meta name="subject" content="your website's subject">
  9. <meta name="robots" content="index,follow,noodp">
  10. <meta name="googlebot" content="index,follow">
  11. <meta name="google" content="nositelinkssearchbox">
  12. <meta name="google-site-verification" content="verification_token">
  13. <meta name="abstract" content="">
  14. <meta name="topic" content="">
  15. <meta name="summary" content="">
  16. <meta name="classification" content="business">
  17. <meta name="url" content="https://example.com/">
  18. <meta name="identifier-URL" content="https://example.com/">
  19. <meta name="directory" content="submission">
  20. <meta name="category" content="">
  21. <meta name="coverage" content="Worldwide">
  22. <meta name="distribution" content="Global">
  23. <meta name="rating" content="General">
  24. <meta name="referrer" content="never">
  25. <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'self'">

Below are the meta attributes which are not recommended for use:

  1. <!-- Used to declare the document language, but not well supported. Better to use <html lang=""> -->
  2. <meta name="language" content="en">
  4. <!-- No evidence of current use in any search engines -->
  5. <meta name="revised" content="Sunday, July 18th, 2010, 5:15 pm">
  7. <!-- Provides an easy way for spam bots to harvest email addresses -->
  8. <meta name="reply-to" content="email@example.com">
  10. <!-- Better to use <link rel="author"> or humans.txt file -->
  11. <meta name="author" content="name, email@example.com">
  12. <meta name="designer" content="">
  13. <meta name="owner" content="">
  15. <!-- Tells search bots to revisit the page after a period. This is not supported because most Search Engines now use random intervals for re-crawling a webpage -->
  16. <meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">
  18. <!-- Google strongly advises not to use this. Better to set up server-side (e.g. Apache, nginx) redirects instead -->
  19. <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="300;url=https://example.com/">
  21. <!-- Cache Control -->
  22. <!-- Better to configure cache control server side -->
  23. <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="0">
  24. <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
  25. <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">
  1. <link rel="copyright" href="copyright.html">
  2. <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://example.com/styles.css">
  3. <link rel="alternate" href="https://feeds.feedburner.com/martini" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS">
  4. <link rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/feed.atom" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3">
  5. <link rel="alternate" href="https://es.example.com/" hreflang="es">
  6. <link rel="me" href="https://google.com/profiles/thenextweb" type="text/html">
  7. <link rel="me" href="mailto:name@example.com">
  8. <link rel="me" href="sms:+15035550125">
  9. <link rel="archives" href="https://example.com/2003/05/" title="May 2003">
  10. <link rel="index" href="https://example.com/" title="DeWitt Clinton">
  11. <link rel="start" href="https://example.com/photos/pattern_recognition_1_about/" title="Pattern Recognition 1">
  12. <link rel="prev" href="https://example.com/opensearch/opensearch-and-openid-a-sure-way-to-get-my-attention/" title="OpenSearch and OpenID? A sure way to get my attention.">
  13. <link rel="search" href="/open-search.xml" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search Title">
  14. <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://example.com/atomFeed.php?page=3">
  15. <link rel="first" href="https://example.com/atomFeed.php">
  16. <link rel="next" href="https://example.com/atomFeed.php?page=4">
  17. <link rel="previous" href="https://example.com/atomFeed.php?page=2">
  18. <link rel="last" href="https://example.com/atomFeed.php?page=147">
  19. <link rel="shortlink" href="https://example.com/?p=43625">
  20. <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/2010/06/9-things-to-do-before-entering-social-media.html">
  21. <link rel="amphtml" href="https://www.example.com/url/to/amp-version.html">
  22. <link rel="EditURI" href="https://example.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD">
  23. <link rel="pingback" href="https://example.com/xmlrpc.php">
  24. <link rel="webmention" href="https://example.com/webmention">
  25. <link rel="manifest" href="manifest.json">
  26. <link rel="author" href="humans.txt">
  27. <link rel="import" href="component.html">
  29. <!-- Prefetching, preloading, prebrowsing -->
  30. <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//example.com/">
  31. <link rel="preconnect" href="https://www.example.com/">
  32. <link rel="prefetch" href="https://www.example.com/">
  33. <link rel="prerender" href="https://example.com/">
  34. <link rel="subresource" href="styles.css">
  35. <link rel="preload" href="image.png">
  36. <!-- More info: https://css-tricks.com/prefetching-preloading-prebrowsing/ -->

Below are the link relations which are not recommended for use:

  1. <link rel="shortcut icon" href="path/to/favicon.ico">

Favicons

  1. <!-- For IE 10 and below -->
  2. <!-- No link, just place a file called favicon.ico in the root directory -->
  4. <!-- For IE 11, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera -->
  5. <link rel="icon" href="path/to/favicon-16.png" sizes="16x16" type="image/png">
  6. <link rel="icon" href="path/to/favicon-32.png" sizes="32x32" type="image/png">
  7. <link rel="icon" href="path/to/favicon-48.png" sizes="48x48" type="image/png">
  8. <link rel="icon" href="path/to/favicon-62.png" sizes="62x62" type="image/png">
  9. <!-- More info: https://bitsofco.de/all-about-favicons-and-touch-icons/ -->

Social

OEmbed

  1. <link rel="alternate" type="application/json+oembed"
  2.   href="http://example.com/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ffoo%2F&amp;format=json"
  3.   title="oEmbed Profile: JSON">
  4. <link rel="alternate" type="text/xml+oembed"
  5.   href="http://example.com/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ffoo%2F&amp;format=xml"
  6.   title="oEmbed Profile: XML">

Facebook / Open Graph

  1. <meta property="fb:app_id" content="123456789">
  2. <meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page.html">
  3. <meta property="og:type" content="website">
  4. <meta property="og:title" content="Content Title">
  5. <meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
  6. <meta property="og:description" content="Description Here">
  7. <meta property="og:site_name" content="Site Name">
  8. <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US">
  9. <meta property="article:author" content="">
  10. <!-- Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters#markup -->
  11. <!-- Open Graph: http://ogp.me/ -->

Facebook / Instant Articles

  1. <meta charset="utf-8">
  2. <meta property="op:markup_version" content="v1.0">
  4. <!-- The URL of the web version of your article -->
  5. <link rel="canonical" href="http://example.com/article.html">
  7. <!-- The style to be used for this article -->
  8. <meta property="fb:article_style" content="myarticlestyle">

Twitter

  1. <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
  2. <meta name="twitter:site" content="@site_account">
  3. <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@individual_account">
  4. <meta name="twitter:url" content="https://example.com/page.html">
  5. <meta name="twitter:title" content="Content Title">
  6. <meta name="twitter:description" content="Content description less than 200 characters">
  7. <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
  8. <!-- More info: https://dev.twitter.com/cards/getting-started -->
  9. <!-- Validate: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards/validation/validator -->

Google+ / Schema.org

  1. <link href="https://plus.google.com/+YourPage" rel="publisher">
  2. <meta itemprop="name" content="Content Title">
  3. <meta itemprop="description" content="Content description less than 200 characters">
  4. <meta itemprop="image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">

Browser/Platform

Apple iOS

  1. <!-- Smart App Banner -->
  2. <meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=APP_ID,affiliate-data=AFFILIATE_ID,app-argument=SOME_TEXT">
  4. <!-- Disable automatic detection and formatting of possible phone numbers -->
  5. <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no">
  7. <!-- Add to Home Screen -->
  8. <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
  9. <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black">
  10. <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-title" content="App Title">
  12. <!-- Touch Icons -->
  13. <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="apple-touch-icon.png">
  14. <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png">
  15. <!-- In most cases, one 180×180px touch icon in the head is enough -->
  16. <!-- If you use art-direction and/or want to have different content for each device, you can add more touch icons -->
  18. <!-- Startup Image -->
  19. <link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="startup.png">
  21. <!-- More info: https://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/appleapplications/reference/safarihtmlref/articles/metatags.html -->

Apple Safari

  1. <!-- Pinned Site -->
  2. <link rel="mask-icon" href="icon.svg" color="red">

Google Android

  1. <meta name="theme-color" content="#E64545">
  3. <!-- Add to homescreen -->
  4. <meta name="mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
  5. <!-- More info: https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/installtohomescreen -->

Google Chrome

  1. <link rel="chrome-webstore-item" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/APP_ID">
  3. <!-- Disable translation prompt -->
  4. <meta name="google" value="notranslate">

Microsoft Internet Explorer

  1. <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">
  2. <meta http-equiv="cleartype" content="on">
  3. <meta name="skype_toolbar" content="skype_toolbar_parser_compatible">
  5. <!-- Disable link highlighting on IE 10 on Windows Phone (https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2012/11/15/adapting-your-webkit-optimized-site-for-internet-explorer-10/) -->
  6. <meta name="msapplication-tap-highlight" content="no">
  8. <!-- Pinned sites (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn255024(v=vs.85).aspx) -->
  9. <meta name="application-name" content="Contoso Pinned Site Caption">
  10. <meta name="msapplication-tooltip" content="Example Tooltip Text">
  11. <meta name="msapplication-starturl" content="/">
  13. <meta name="msapplication-config" content="http://example.com/browserconfig.xml">
  15. <meta name="msapplication-allowDomainApiCalls" content="true">
  16. <meta name="msapplication-allowDomainMetaTags" content="true">
  17. <meta name="msapplication-badge" content="frequency=30; polling-uri=http://example.com/id45453245/polling.xml">
  18. <meta name="msapplication-navbutton-color" content="#FF3300">
  19. <meta name="msapplication-notification" content="frequency=60;polling-uri=http://example.com/livetile">
  20. <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="images/logo.png">
  21. <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="images/largelogo.png">
  22. <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="images/tinylogo.png">
  23. <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="images/widelogo.png">
  24. <meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=Check Order Status;action-uri=./orderStatus.aspx?src=IE9;icon-uri=./favicon.ico">
  25. <meta name="msapplication-task-seperator" content="1">
  26. <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#FF3300">
  27. <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="images/tileimage.jpg">
  28. <meta name="msapplication-window" content="width=1024;height=768">

Microsoft Internet Explorer (LEGACY DO NOT USE)

  1. <!-- Disable the image toolbar when you mouse over images in IE 6 (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532986(v=vs.85).aspx) -->
  2. <meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no">
  4. <!-- Disable Windows theming to form inputs/buttons (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/322240) -->
  5. <meta name="MSThemeCompatible" content="no">
  7. <!-- Disable a feature that only appeared on IE 6 beta (https://stackoverflow.com/q/2167301) -->
  8. <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true">
  10. <!-- Interpage Transitions (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532847(v=vs.85).aspx) -->
  11. <meta http-equiv="Page-Enter" content="revealtrans(duration=2,transition=2)">
  12. <meta http-equiv="Page-Exit" content="revealtrans(duration=3,transition=12)">
  13. <meta http-equiv="Site-Enter" content="revealtrans(duration=2,transition=2)">
  14. <meta http-equiv="Site-Exit" content="revealtrans(duration=3,transition=12)">

360 Browser

  1. <!-- select rendering engine in order -->
  2. <meta name="renderer" content="webkit|ie-comp|ie-stand">

UC Mobile Browser

  1. <!-- Locks the screen into the specified orientation -->
  2. <meta name="screen-orientation" content="landscape/portrait">
  3. <!-- Display this page in fullscreen -->
  4. <meta name="full-screen" content="yes">
  5. <!-- UC browser will display images even if in "text mode" -->
  6. <meta name="imagemode" content="force">
  7. <!-- Page will be displayed in "application mode"(fullscreen,forbiding gesture, etc.) -->
  8. <meta name="browsermode" content="application">
  9. <!-- Disabled the UC browser's "night mode" in this page -->
  10. <meta name="nightmode" content="disable">
  11. <!-- Simplify the page to reduce data transfer -->
  12. <meta name="layoutmode" content="fitscreen">
  13. <!-- Disable the UC browser's feature of "scaling font up when there are many words in this page" -->
  14. <meta name="wap-font-scale" content="no">

QQ Mobile Browser

  1. <!-- Locks the screen into the specified orientation -->
  2. <meta name="x5-orientation" content="landscape/portrait">
  3. <!-- Display this page in fullscreen -->
  4. <meta name="x5-fullscreen" content="true">
  5. <!-- Page will be displayed in "application mode"(fullscreen,etc.) -->
  6. <meta name="x5-page-mode" content="app">
  1. <!-- iOS -->
  2. <meta property="al:ios:url" content="applinks://docs">
  3. <meta property="al:ios:app_store_id" content="12345">
  4. <meta property="al:ios:app_name" content="App Links">
  5. <!-- Android -->
  6. <meta property="al:android:url" content="applinks://docs">
  7. <meta property="al:android:app_name" content="App Links">
  8. <meta property="al:android:package" content="org.applinks">
  9. <!-- Web Fallback -->
  10. <meta property="al:web:url" content="http://applinks.org/documentation">
  11. <!-- More info: http://applinks.org/documentation/ -->

Other Resources

Contributing

Open an issue or a pull request to suggest changes or additions.

Author

Josh Buchea

License

MIT License