Meta tags are HTML elements in the <head> section of your web pages that provide information about the page to search engines and other systems. Some meta tags directly affect your search visibility. Most don’t. And a few that SEO guides still recommend are completely ignored by Google.
This article separates the meta tags that matter from the ones that don’t, explains what each one does, and tells you how to implement them properly. If you’ve seen a list of “15 essential meta tags for SEO” and wondered which ones are actually essential, this should clear it up.
Meta Tags That Directly Affect SEO
Title Tag
Technically not a meta tag (it’s a standalone HTML element rather than a <meta> tag), but it lives in the <head> section and functions the same way for SEO purposes. The title tag is the single most important element for on-page rankings and click-through rate. I’ve covered this in full detail in my title tag guide.
<title>Your Page Title Here | Brand Name</title>
Meta Description
The meta description doesn’t directly influence rankings. Google has confirmed this repeatedly. But it significantly influences click-through rate, which indirectly affects rankings.
<meta name="description" content="A clear, compelling summary of what this page offers. 150-160 characters. Include your primary keyword.">
Best practices: - Keep it between 150-160 characters - Include your primary keyword (Google bolds matching terms in results) - Write it as a mini advert: what will the reader get from clicking? - Make it unique for every page - Don’t use quotation marks (they can cause truncation)
The honest caveat: Google rewrites meta descriptions roughly 60-70% of the time, pulling text from the page that it considers more relevant to the specific search query. Write a good meta description anyway, because when Google uses yours, it needs to work.
Meta Robots
The meta robots tag tells search engines how to handle a page: whether to index it, follow its links, or apply other directives.
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
Common directives:
- index / noindex - Whether to include the page in search results
- follow / nofollow - Whether to follow and pass equity through the page’s links
- noarchive - Prevents Google from showing a cached copy
- nosnippet - Prevents Google from showing a text snippet or video preview
- max-snippet:[number] - Limits the snippet length to a specified number of characters
- max-image-preview:[size] - Controls the size of image previews (none, standard, large)
When to use noindex: For pages that should exist for users but shouldn’t appear in search results: internal search result pages, thank-you pages, staging environments, admin pages, thin tag or archive pages that create duplicate content.
When not to use noindex: Don’t noindex pages that should rank. This sounds obvious, but I’ve found noindex tags on revenue-generating service pages during audits more times than I’d expect. CMS plugins can apply noindex globally if misconfigured.
The X-Robots-Tag alternative: The same directives can be delivered via HTTP headers using X-Robots-Tag. This is useful for non-HTML resources (PDFs, images) where you can’t embed a meta tag.
Canonical Tag
Not technically a meta tag (it’s a <link> element), but lives in the <head> and is essential for SEO. The canonical tag tells Google which URL is the preferred version when the same content exists at multiple URLs.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/preferred-url">
I’ve written a comprehensive guide on canonical URLs and SEO that covers implementation, common mistakes, and diagnostic approaches.
Viewport Meta Tag
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
The viewport tag controls how your page renders on mobile devices. It’s not a direct ranking factor, but without it, your page will render at desktop width on mobile, creating a terrible user experience. Since Google uses mobile-first indexing, a page that doesn’t render properly on mobile effectively can’t rank.
Every modern website should include this tag. If yours doesn’t, it’s likely a sign of deeper template or CMS issues.
Meta Tags That Affect Social Sharing (Not Search Rankings)
Open Graph Tags
Open Graph (OG) tags control how your pages appear when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social platforms. They don’t affect Google rankings, but they significantly affect how your content looks when shared socially, which affects click-through rates from social media.
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="A compelling summary for social sharing">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_GB">
Why they matter: A shared link with a properly sized image (1200x630 pixels), a clear title, and a compelling description gets far more engagement than a shared link with a missing image and auto-generated text. For businesses that rely on social media referrals, OG tags are worth implementing properly.
Twitter Card Tags
Similar to Open Graph but specific to X (formerly Twitter):
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="A summary for Twitter">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
If you’ve already implemented Open Graph tags, Twitter will fall back to those. Twitter-specific tags are only needed if you want different content to appear on Twitter versus other platforms.
Meta Tags That Don’t Matter (But People Still Use)
Meta Keywords
<meta name="keywords" content="seo, seo services, seo consultant">
Google has ignored the meta keywords tag since at least 2009. Bing has suggested it may use it as a spam signal (meaning it could hurt you). No major search engine uses it for ranking purposes. If you’re spending time filling this in, stop. The only thing it does is show competitors your target keywords.
Meta Author
<meta name="author" content="John Carey">
Google doesn’t use the meta author tag for ranking. If you want to establish author attribution for E-E-A-T purposes, use proper author pages, structured data (Person schema), and bylines that link to author profiles. The meta tag alone does nothing.
Meta Revisit-After
<meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">
This tag was supposed to tell search engines how often to recrawl your page. No major search engine has ever supported it. Google crawls pages based on its own assessment of change frequency and page importance, not based on a meta tag suggestion.
Meta Distribution and Meta Rating
Both are relics from early web standards. Neither affects search rankings or crawl behaviour in any modern search engine.
Implementing Meta Tags Properly
On WordPress
If you’re using Yoast SEO or RankMath, these plugins handle title tags, meta descriptions, canonical tags, meta robots, and Open Graph tags through their interface. The key is to actually customise them per page rather than relying on templates.
For custom meta tags not covered by your SEO plugin, use the plugin’s “custom code” or “additional head” feature, or add them through your theme’s functions.php using the wp_head hook.
On Wix
Wix provides meta tag editing through the SEO panel on each page. Title, description, and social sharing tags can be customised per page. For meta robots or custom tags, use the Custom Code injection feature under Settings.
On Shopify
Shopify allows title and description editing through the admin interface for each page, product, and collection. Open Graph tags are generated from the title, description, and featured image. For additional meta tags, edit the theme.liquid file.
Validation
After implementing meta tags, verify them:
- View Source (Ctrl+U / Cmd+U) and check the <head> section manually
- Google’s Rich Results Test for structured data validation
- Facebook’s Sharing Debugger for Open Graph tag validation
- Twitter Card Validator for Twitter card preview
- Screaming Frog crawl for site-wide meta tag auditing
A Practical Priority Order
If you’re starting from scratch or cleaning up a neglected site, prioritise meta tags in this order:
- Title tags on every page (highest SEO impact)
- Meta descriptions on every page (CTR impact)
- Canonical tags (duplicate content prevention)
- Meta robots where needed (indexation control)
- Viewport tag (mobile rendering, should already exist)
- Open Graph tags (social sharing appearance)
- Structured data (rich results eligibility, technically not meta tags but lives in the head)
Everything else is either irrelevant, platform-specific, or so niche that it only matters for specific technical scenarios.
If your technical SEO audit is flagging meta tag issues, focus on the tags in positions 1-4 above. Those are the ones where getting it right (or wrong) has a measurable impact on your search visibility.