Basic tags
| Tag | What it does | Recommended | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
<title> | Page title in search results and the browser tab. | ≤ 60 characters | <title>Best Sourdough Bread Recipe</title> |
<meta name="description"> | Snippet shown under the title in search results. | 70–160 characters | <meta name="description" content="Bake crusty sourdough at home with this easy recipe."> |
<link rel="canonical"> | Declares the canonical URL, avoiding duplicate content. | Absolute URL | <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page"> |
<meta name="robots"> | Tells crawlers whether to index the page and follow links. | index, follow | <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"> |
Social — Open Graph (og:*)
| Tag | What it does | Recommended | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
<meta property="og:title"> | Title shown in social share cards. | ≤ 60 characters | <meta property="og:title" content="Best Sourdough Bread Recipe"> |
<meta property="og:description"> | Description in social share cards. | ≤ 200 characters | <meta property="og:description" content="Bake crusty sourdough at home."> |
<meta property="og:image"> | The share-card image. | 1200×630 (1.91:1) | <meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og.jpg"> |
<meta property="og:type"> | The object type (website, article, …). | website or article | <meta property="og:type" content="article"> |
<meta property="og:url"> | The canonical URL for the shared object. | Absolute URL | <meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page"> |
<meta property="og:site_name"> | The site name shown next to the title. | Short site name | <meta property="og:site_name" content="MetaTagCheck"> |
Twitter / X (twitter:*)
| Tag | What it does | Recommended | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
<meta name="twitter:card"> | Card layout on X: small or large image. | summary or summary_large_image | <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"> |
<meta name="twitter:title"> | Title on X share cards. | ≤ 70 characters | <meta name="twitter:title" content="Best Sourdough Bread Recipe"> |
<meta name="twitter:description"> | Description on X share cards. | ≤ 200 characters | <meta name="twitter:description" content="Bake crusty sourdough at home."> |
<meta name="twitter:image"> | Image on X share cards. | 1200×675 or 1200×630 | <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/og.jpg"> |
Technical
| Tag | What it does | Recommended | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
<meta name="viewport"> | Controls mobile layout scaling. | width=device-width, initial-scale=1 | <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> |
<meta charset> | Declares the text encoding. | UTF-8 | <meta charset="UTF-8"> |
<html lang> | Declares the page language for screen readers and SEO. | Valid language code | <html lang="en"> |
JSON-LD | Structured data for rich results. | Valid schema.org types | <script type="application/ld+json">{"@type":"Recipe",…}</script> |
How to use this checklist
Work through the four groups from top to bottom. The basic tags are what search engines rely on to understand and display your page; get the title and description right first. The Open Graph and Twitter tags control how your page appears when it is shared on social networks, and they are independent of the search tags — so a page can rank well but still share with a blank card if the og:* tags are missing. The technical tags (viewport, charset, language, structured data) affect rendering and how search engines interpret the page.
Rather than checking every tag by hand, paste your HTML into the meta checker and it will grade each item automatically, flagging what is missing and confirming what is correct. When you add or update an Open Graph image, use the OG image size checker to confirm it is 1200×630 and under 8 MB before publishing.
Explore
- Meta checker — audit your HTML and preview share cards.
- OG image size checker — verify image dimensions and ratio.