What are meta tags?
Meta tags are HTML elements that provide metadata about a webpage to search engines and social platforms. They don't appear visually on the page but significantly impact how your page appears in search results and when shared on social media.
The 3 types of meta tags you need
1. SEO meta tags
These tell search engines about your page:
<title>— The clickable headline in Google search results<meta name="description">— The grey preview text below the title<link rel="canonical">— Prevents duplicate content issues<meta name="robots">— Tells crawlers whether to index the page
2. Open Graph tags (Facebook, LinkedIn)
Open Graph tags control how your page appears when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, and most other social platforms:
og:title— Title shown on the shared cardog:description— Description shown on the cardog:image— The preview image (recommended: 1200×630px)og:type— Content type (website, article, product)
3. Twitter Card tags
Similar to Open Graph but specific to Twitter/X:
twitter:card— Card type (summary or summary_large_image)twitter:title— Title for the cardtwitter:image— Preview image
Meta tag best practices 2025
Title tag rules
- Keep between 50–60 characters
- Include your primary keyword near the beginning
- Make it compelling — this is your headline in search results
- Every page should have a unique title
Meta description rules
- Keep between 120–160 characters
- Include a call to action ("Learn how...", "Download free...")
- Include your primary keyword naturally
- Unique for every page — never duplicate
How to generate meta tags for free
- Go to Meta Tag Generator
- Fill in your page title and description
- Add canonical URL
- Expand Open Graph section and add OG image URL
- Copy the generated HTML
- Paste inside the
<head>section of your HTML
Validate your meta tags
After adding meta tags, test them with:
- Google Search Console (how Google sees your page)
- OG Image Preview (how your page looks when shared)
- Facebook Sharing Debugger (facebook.com/sharing/debugger)