SEO Meta Tags Guide

What Are SEO Meta Tags?

SEO meta tags are written in the HTML <head> section and communicate page information to search engines and social media platforms. While they're not direct ranking factors, they directly influence search result display quality (click-through rate) and social sharing preview cards.

Meta tags fall into four main categories: basic SEO tags (title, description, canonical), social sharing tags (Open Graph, Twitter Card), technical tags (viewport, charset, robots), and structured data (JSON-LD).

Basic SEO Tags

title

<title>Page Title — Brand Name | Integrity</title>

The title is displayed as the blue link text in search results. Keep it to 50–60 characters. Put the most important keywords near the front, and use a unique title for every page. Append the brand name at the end, separated by |, -, or —.

meta description

<meta name="description" content="A concise summary of the page content that persuades users to click.">

Displayed below the title in search results. Recommended length: 120–160 characters. Accurately reflect the page content and naturally include key terms. Note that Google may override your description and pull text directly from the page body.

canonical

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page/">

Tells search engines which URL is the authoritative version when the same content is accessible via multiple URLs (with/without www, trailing slashes, query parameters). Missing canonical tags can cause ranking signals to be split across multiple URLs.

Open Graph Tags

The Open Graph protocol (created by Facebook) controls how pages appear in social sharing previews on Facebook, LinkedIn, messaging apps, and more.

<meta property="og:title" content="Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="Page description">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og-image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page/">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Site Name">
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US">

og:image is the most important OG tag. Recommended size: 1200×630px, max 8MB. Without it, shares display a blank card or a randomly selected image.

Twitter Card Tags

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Page description">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/twitter-image.jpg">

X (Twitter) will fall back to OG tags if Twitter Card tags are missing, but explicit configuration is more reliable. summary_large_image displays a wide landscape card and is the most visually effective option for most pages.

robots Meta Tag

<!-- Default (same as not setting it) -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

<!-- Exclude from index -->
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

Apply noindex to login pages, admin interfaces, test pages, and duplicate filter pages. Unlike robots.txt, meta robots can be set individually per page.

JSON-LD Structured Data

JSON-LD uses Schema.org vocabulary to represent page content in a machine-readable format. It's the key to earning Google Rich Results — star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, recipe cards, and more.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Article Title",
  "description": "Article description",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Author Name" },
  "datePublished": "2024-01-01",
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Site Name",
    "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://example.com/logo.png" }
  }
}
</script>

Use FAQPage for FAQ pages, Product for product pages, and LocalBusiness for local businesses. Validate your structured data with Google's Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results).

hreflang for Multilingual Sites

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/page/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ko" href="https://example.com/ko/page/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/page/">

x-default specifies the default URL for users who don't match any language. hreflang tags must be set bidirectionally — every language version page must reference all other language versions.

Pre-deployment SEO Checklist

Before every deployment, verify: title exists and is under 60 characters; description exists and is 120–160 characters; canonical URL is set; og:image is set at 1200×630px or larger; Twitter Card is configured; JSON-LD validates correctly; and if multilingual, hreflang is set bidirectionally on all language versions.

FAQ

Why does Google ignore my title and description?

Google analyzes the user's query and the page's content to find what it considers a better match than your meta tags. This happens when tags are too generic or when Google finds more relevant text in the body. Write specific, query-intent-aligned titles and descriptions to minimize overrides.

Why is 1200×630px recommended for OG images?

Major platforms like Facebook render preview cards using a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. 1200×630px is the minimum recommended size accounting for retina displays. Smaller images may appear blurry or fall back to a plain link without a card.

Should I set a self-referential canonical on every page?

Yes. Setting every page's canonical to itself prevents URL variations (session IDs, query parameters, etc.) from being indexed as separate pages. It's a defensive practice that costs nothing and prevents ranking dilution.

Try the Tool

Inspect any page's meta tags instantly with the SEO Meta Check tool. Copy the page source (Ctrl+U) and paste it in to analyze title, description, OG tags, Twitter Card, and canonical — plus a Google search result preview.