path: root/files/vi/web/html/element/meta/index.html

---
title: '<meta>: The Document-level Metadata element'
slug: Web/HTML/Element/meta
translation_of: Web/HTML/Element/meta
---
<div>{{HTMLRef}}</div>

<p>The <strong>HTML <code>&lt;meta&gt;</code> element</strong> represents {{Glossary("Metadata","metadata")}} that cannot be represented by other HTML meta-related elements, like {{HTMLElement("base")}}, {{HTMLElement("link")}}, {{HTMLElement("script")}}, {{HTMLElement("style")}} or {{HTMLElement("title")}}.</p>

<table class="properties">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th><a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Content_categories">Content categories</a></th>
   <td>Metadata content. If the {{htmlattrxref("itemprop", "meta")}} attribute is present: <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Content_categories#Flow_content">flow content</a>, <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Content_categories#Phrasing_content">phrasing content</a>.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th>Permitted content</th>
   <td>None, it is an {{Glossary("empty element")}}.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th>Tag omission</th>
   <td>As it is a void element, the start tag must be present and the end tag must not be present.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th>Permitted parents</th>
   <td><code>&lt;meta charset&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;meta http-equiv&gt;</code>: a {{HTMLElement("head")}} element. If the {{htmlattrxref("http-equiv", "meta")}} is not an encoding declaration, it can also be inside a {{HTMLElement("noscript")}} element, itself inside a {{HTMLElement("head")}} element.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">Permitted ARIA roles</th>
   <td>None</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th>DOM interface</th>
   <td>{{domxref("HTMLMetaElement")}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Attributes">Attributes</h2>

<p>This element includes the <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes">global attributes</a>.</p>

<div class="note">
<p><strong>Note:</strong> the global attribute {{htmlattrxref("name", "meta")}} has a specific meaning for the {{HTMLElement("meta")}} element, and the {{htmlattrxref("itemprop", "meta")}} attribute must not be set on the same <code>&lt;meta&gt;</code> element that has any existing {{htmlattrxref("name", "meta")}}, {{htmlattrxref("http-equiv", "meta")}} or {{htmlattrxref("charset", "meta")}} attributes.</p>
</div>

<dl>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("charset")}}</dt>
 <dd>This attribute declares the page's character encoding. It must contain a <a class="external" href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets">standard IANA MIME name for character encodings</a>. Although the standard doesn't request a specific encoding, it suggests:
 <ul>
  <li>Authors are encouraged to use <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary/UTF-8"><code>UTF-8</code></a>.</li>
  <li>Authors should not use ASCII-incompatible encodings to avoid security risk: browsers not supporting them may interpret harmful content as HTML. This happens with the <code>JIS_C6226-1983</code>, <code>JIS_X0212-1990</code>, <code>HZ-GB-2312</code>, <code>JOHAB</code>, the ISO-2022 family and the EBCDIC family.</li>
 </ul>

 <div class="note">
 <p><strong>Note: </strong>ASCII-incompatible encodings are those that don't map the 8-bit code points <code>0x20</code> to <code>0x7E</code> to the <code>0x0020</code> to <code>0x007E</code> Unicode code points)</p>
 </div>

 <div class="warning">
 <ul>
  <li>Authors <strong>must not</strong> use <code>CESU-8</code>, <code>UTF-7</code>, <code>BOCU-1</code> and/or <code>SCSU</code> as <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary/Cross-site_scripting">cross-site scripting</a> attacks with these encodings have been demonstrated.</li>
  <li>Authors should not use <code>UTF-32</code> because not all HTML5 encoding algorithms can distinguish it from <code>UTF-16</code>.</li>
 </ul>
 </div>

 <div class="note"><strong>Notes:</strong>

 <ul>
  <li>The declared character encoding must match the one the page was saved with to avoid garbled characters and security holes.</li>
  <li>The {{HTMLElement("meta")}} element declaring the encoding must be inside the {{HTMLElement("head")}} element and <strong>within the first 1024 bytes</strong> of the HTML as some browsers only look at those bytes before choosing an encoding.</li>
  <li>This {{HTMLElement("meta")}} element is only one part of the <a href="https://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/parsing.html#encoding-sniffing-algorithm" title="Algorithm charset page">algorithm to determine a page's character set</a>. The <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Type"><code>Content-Type</code> header</a> and any {{Glossary("Byte-Order Mark","Byte-Order Marks")}} override this element.</li>
  <li>It is strongly recommended to define the character encoding. If a page's encoding is undefined, cross-scripting techniques are possible, such as the <a class="external" href="https://code.google.com/p/doctype-mirror/wiki/ArticleUtf7"><code>UTF-7</code> fallback cross-scripting technique</a>.</li>
  <li>The {{HTMLElement("meta")}} element with a <code>charset</code> attribute is a synonym for the pre-HTML5 <code>&lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<em>IANAcharset</em>"&gt;</code>, where <em><code>IANAcharset</code></em> contains the value of the equivalent {{htmlattrxref("charset", "meta")}} attribute. This syntax is still allowed, although no longer recommended.</li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 </dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("content")}}</dt>
 <dd>This attribute contains the value for the {{htmlattrxref("http-equiv", "meta")}} or {{htmlattrxref("name", "meta")}} attribute, depending on which is used.</dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("http-equiv")}}</dt>
 <dd>Defines a pragma directive. The attribute is named <code><strong>http-equiv</strong>(alent)</code> because all the allowed values are names of particular HTTP headers:
 <ul>
  <li><code>"content-language"</code> {{obsolete_inline}}<br>
   Defines the default language of the page. It can be overridden by the <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/lang">lang</a> attribute on any element.
   <div class="warning">
   <p><strong>Warning: </strong>Do not use this value, as it is obsolete. Prefer the <code>lang</code> attribute on the {{HTMLElement("html")}} element.</p>
   </div>
  </li>
  <li><code>"content-security-policy"</code><br>
   Allows page authors to define a <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/Security/CSP/CSP_policy_directives">content policy</a> for the current page. Content policies mostly specify allowed server origins and script endpoints which help guard against cross-site scripting attacks.</li>
  <li><code>"content-type"</code> {{obsolete_inline}}<br>
   Defines the <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary/MIME_type">MIME type</a> of the document, followed by its character encoding. It follows the same syntax as the HTTP <code>content-type</code> entity-header field, but as it is inside a HTML page, most values other than <code>text/html</code> are impossible. Therefore the valid syntax for its <code>content</code> is the string '<code>text/html</code>' followed by a character set with the following syntax: '<code>; charset=<em>IANAcharset</em></code>', where <code>IANAcharset</code> is the <em>preferred MIME name</em> for a character set as <a class="external" href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets">defined by the IANA.</a>
   <div class="warning">
   <p><strong>Warning: </strong>Do not use this value, as it is obsolete. Use the {{htmlattrxref("charset", "meta")}} attribute on the {{HTMLElement("meta")}} element.</p>
   </div>

   <div class="note">
   <p><strong>Note: </strong>As {{HTMLElement("meta")}} can't change documents' types in XHTML or HTML5's XHTML serialization, never set the MIME type to an XHTML MIME type with <code>&lt;meta&gt;</code>.</p>
   </div>
  </li>
  <li><code>"refresh"</code><br>
   This instruction specifies:
   <ul>
    <li>The number of seconds until the page should be reloaded - only if the {{htmlattrxref("content", "meta")}} attribute contains a positive integer.</li>
    <li>The number of seconds until the page should redirect to another - only if the {{htmlattrxref("content", "meta")}} attribute contains a positive integer followed by the string '<code>;url=</code>', and a valid URL.</li>
   </ul>
  </li>
  <li><code>"set-cookie"</code> {{obsolete_inline}}<br>
   Defines a <a href="/en-US/docs/cookie">cookie</a> for the page. Its content must follow the syntax defined in the <a class="external" href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpstate-cookie-14">IETF HTTP Cookie Specification</a>.
   <div class="warning">
   <p><strong>Warning:</strong> Do not use this instruction, as it is obsolete. Use the HTTP header <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Set-Cookie"><code>Set-Cookie</code></a> instead.</p>
   </div>
  </li>
 </ul>
 </dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("name")}}</dt>
 <dd>
 <p>This attribute defines the name of a piece of document-level metadata. It should not be set if one of the attributes {{htmlattrxref("itemprop", "meta")}}, {{htmlattrxref("http-equiv", "meta")}} or {{htmlattrxref("charset", "meta")}} is also set.</p>

 <p>This metadata name is associated with the value contained by the {{htmlattrxref("content", "meta")}} attribute. The possible values for the name attribute are:</p>

 <ul>
  <li><code>application-name</code> which defines the name of the application running in the web page.

   <div class="note"><strong>Note:</strong>

   <ul>
    <li>Browsers may use this to identify the application. It is different from the {{HTMLElement("title")}} element, which usually contain the application name, but may also contain information like the document name or a status.</li>
    <li>Simple web pages shouldn't define an application-name.</li>
   </ul>
   </div>
  </li>
  <li><code>author</code> which defines the name of the document's author.</li>
  <li><code>description</code> which contains a short and accurate summary of the content of the page. Several browsers, like Firefox and Opera, use this as the default description of bookmarked pages.</li>
  <li><code>generator</code> which contains the identifier of the software that generated the page.</li>
  <li><code>keywords</code> which contains words relevant to the page's content separated by commas.</li>
  <li><code>referrer</code> which controls the <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referer"><code>Referer</code> HTTP header</a> attached to requests sent from the document:
   <table class="standard-table">
    <caption>Values for the <code>content</code> attribute of <code>&lt;meta name="referrer"&gt;</code></caption>
    <tbody>
     <tr>
      <td><code>no-referrer</code></td>
      <td>Do not send a HTTP <code>Referrer</code> header.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>origin</code></td>
      <td>Send the <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary/Origin">origin</a> of the document.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>no-referrer-when-downgrade</code></td>
      <td>Send the <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary/Origin">origin</a> as a referrer to URLs as secure as the current page, (https→https), but does not send a referrer to less secure URLs (https→http). This is the default behaviour.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>origin-when-cross-origin</code></td>
      <td>Send the full URL (stripped of parameters) for same-origin requests, but only send the <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary/Origin">origin</a> for other cases.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>same-origin</code></td>
      <td>A referrer will be sent for <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Same-origin_policy">same-site origins</a>, but cross-origin requests will contain no referrer information.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>strict-origin</code></td>
      <td>Only send the origin of the document as the referrer to a-priori as-much-secure destination (HTTPS-&gt;HTTPS), but don't send it to a less secure destination (HTTPS-&gt;HTTP).</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>strict-origin-when-cross-origin</code></td>
      <td>Send a full URL when performing a same-origin request, only send the origin of the document to a-priori as-much-secure destination (HTTPS-&gt;HTTPS), and send no header to a less secure destination (HTTPS-&gt;HTTP).</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>unsafe-URL</code></td>
      <td>Send the full URL (stripped of parameters) for same-origin or cross-origin requests.</td>
     </tr>
    </tbody>
   </table>

   <div class="note">
   <p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>

   <ul>
    <li>Some browsers support the deprecated values of <code>always</code>, <code>default</code>, and <code>never</code> for referrer.</li>
    <li>Dynamically inserting <code>&lt;meta name="referrer"&gt;</code> (with <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/write"><code>document.write</code></a> or <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/API/Node/appendChild"><code>appendChild</code></a>) makes the referrer behaviour unpredictable.</li>
    <li>When several conflicting policies are defined, the no-referrer policy is applied.</li>
   </ul>
   </div>
  </li>
 </ul>

 <p>This attribute may also have a value taken from the extended list defined on <a class="external" href="https://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/MetaExtensions">WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions page</a>. Although none have been formally accepted yet, a few commonly used names are:</p>

 <ul>
  <li><code>creator</code> which defines the name of the creator of the document, such as an organization or institution. If there are more than one, several {{HTMLElement("meta")}} elements should be used.</li>
  <li><code>googlebot</code>, a synonym of <code>robots</code>, is only followed by Googlebot (the indexing crawler for Google).</li>
  <li><code>publisher</code> which defines the name of the document's publisher.</li>
  <li><code>robots</code> which defines the behaviour that cooperative crawlers, or "robots", should use with the page. It is a comma-separated list of the values below:
   <table class="standard-table">
    <caption>Values for the content of <code>&lt;meta name="robots"&gt;</code></caption>
    <thead>
     <tr>
      <th scope="col">Value</th>
      <th scope="col">Description</th>
      <th scope="col">Used by</th>
     </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
     <tr>
      <td><code>index</code></td>
      <td>Allows the robot to index the page (default).</td>
      <td>All</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>noindex</code></td>
      <td>Requests the robot to not index the page.</td>
      <td>All</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>follow</code></td>
      <td>Allows the robot to follow the links on the page (default).</td>
      <td>All</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>nofollow</code></td>
      <td>Requests the robot to not follow the links on the page.</td>
      <td>All</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>none</code></td>
      <td>Equivalent to <code>noindex, nofollow</code></td>
      <td><a class="external" href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812">Google</a></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>noodp</code></td>
      <td>Prevents using the <a class="external" href="https://www.dmoz.org/">Open Directory Project</a> description, if any, as the page description in search engine results.</td>
      <td>
       <p><a class="external" href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624#nodmoz">Google</a>, <a class="external" href="https://help.yahoo.com/kb/search-for-desktop/meta-tags-robotstxt-yahoo-search-sln2213.html#cont5">Yahoo</a>, <a class="external" href="https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/which-robots-metatags-does-bing-support-5198d240">Bing</a></p>
      </td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>noarchive</code></td>
      <td>Requests the search engine not to cache the page content.</td>
      <td><a class="external" href="https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_meta_tag#valid-indexing--serving-directives">Google</a>, <a class="external" href="https://help.yahoo.com/kb/search-for-desktop/SLN2213.html">Yahoo</a>, <a class="external" href="https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/which-robots-metatags-does-bing-support-5198d240">Bing</a></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>nosnippet</code></td>
      <td>Prevents displaying any description of the page in search engine results.</td>
      <td><a class="external" href="https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_meta_tag#valid-indexing--serving-directives">Google</a>, <a class="external" href="https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/which-robots-metatags-does-bing-support-5198d240">Bing</a></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>noimageindex</code></td>
      <td>Requests this page not to appear as the referring page of an indexed image.</td>
      <td><a class="external" href="https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_meta_tag#valid-indexing--serving-directives">Google</a></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>nocache</code></td>
      <td>Synonym of <code>noarchive</code>.</td>
      <td><a class="external" href="https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/which-robots-metatags-does-bing-support-5198d240">Bing</a></td>
     </tr>
    </tbody>
   </table>

   <div class="note"><strong>Notes:</strong>

   <ul>
    <li>Only cooperative robots follow these rules. Do not expect to prevent e-mail harvesters with them.</li>
    <li>The robot still needs to access the page in order to read these rules. To prevent bandwidth consumption, use a <em><a href="/en-US/docs/Robot_Exclusion_Protocol" title="Robot Exclusion Protocol">robots.txt</a></em> file.</li>
    <li>If you want to remove a page, <code>noindex</code> will work, but only after the robot visits the page again. Ensure that the <code>robots.txt</code> file is not preventing revisits.</li>
    <li>Some values are mutually exclusive, like <code>index</code> and <code>noindex</code>, or <code>follow</code> and <code>nofollow</code>. In these cases the robot's behaviour is undefined and may vary between them.</li>
    <li>Some crawler robots, like Google, Yahoo and Bing, support the same values for the HTTP header <code>X-Robots-Tag</code>; this allows non-HTML documents like images to use these rules.</li>
   </ul>
   </div>
  </li>
  <li><code>slurp</code>, is a synonym of <code>robots</code>, but only for Slurp - the crawler for Yahoo Search.</li>
  <li><code>viewport</code>, which gives hints about the size of the initial size of the {{glossary("viewport")}}. Used by mobile devices only.
   <table class="fullwidth-table">
    <caption>Values for the content of <code>&lt;meta name="viewport"&gt;</code></caption>
    <thead>
     <tr>
      <th scope="col">Value</th>
      <th scope="col">Possible subvalues</th>
      <th scope="col">Description</th>
     </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
     <tr>
      <td><code>width</code></td>
      <td>A positive integer number, or the text <code>device-width</code></td>
      <td>Defines the pixel width of the viewport that you want the web site to be rendered at.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>height</code></td>
      <td>A positive integer, or the text <code>device-height</code></td>
      <td>Defines the height of the viewport. Not used by any browser.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>initial-scale</code></td>
      <td>A positive number between <code>0.0</code> and <code>10.0</code></td>
      <td>Defines the ratio between the device width (<code>device-width</code> in portrait mode or <code>device-height</code> in landscape mode) and the viewport size.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>maximum-scale</code></td>
      <td>A positive number between <code>0.0</code> and <code>10.0</code></td>
      <td>Defines the maximum amount to zoom in. It must be greater or equal to the <code>minimum-scale</code> or the behaviour is undefined. Browser settings can ignore this rule and iOS10+ ignores it by default.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>minimum-scale</code></td>
      <td>A positive number between <code>0.0</code> and <code>10.0</code></td>
      <td>Defines the minimum zoom level. It must be smaller or equal to the <code>maximum-scale</code> or the behaviour is undefined. Browser settings can ignore this rule and iOS10+ ignores it by default.</td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><code>user-scalable</code></td>
      <td><code>yes</code> or <code>no</code></td>
      <td>If set to <code>no</code>, the user is not able to zoom in the webpage. The default is <code>yes</code>. Browser settings can ignore this rule, and iOS10+ ignores it by default.</td>
     </tr>
    </tbody>
   </table>

   <table class="standard-table">
    <thead>
     <tr>
      <th scope="col">Specification</th>
      <th scope="col">Status</th>
      <th scope="col">Comment</th>
     </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
     <tr>
      <td>{{SpecName('CSS3 Device', '#viewport-meta', '&lt;meta name="viewport"&gt;')}}</td>
      <td>{{Spec2('CSS3 Device')}}</td>
      <td>Non-normatively describes the Viewport META element</td>
     </tr>
    </tbody>
   </table>

   <div>See also: {{cssxref("@viewport")}}</div>

   <div class="note"><strong>Notes:</strong>

   <ul>
    <li>Though unstandardized, this declaration is respected by most mobile browsers due to de-facto dominance.</li>
    <li>The default values may vary between devices and browsers.</li>
    <li>To learn about this declaration in Firefox for Mobile, see <a href="/en-US/docs/Mobile/Viewport_meta_tag" title="Mobile/Viewport meta tag">this article</a>.</li>
   </ul>
   </div>
  </li>
 </ul>
 </dd>
 <dt>{{htmlattrdef("scheme")}} {{obsolete_inline}}</dt>
 <dd>This attribute defines the scheme in which metadata is described. A scheme is a context leading to the correct interpretations of the {{htmlattrxref("content", "meta")}} value, like a format.
 <div class="warning">
 <p><strong>Warning:</strong> Do not use this value, as it is obsolete. There is no replacement as there was no real usage for it.</p>
 </div>
 </dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2>

<p>Depending on the attributes set, the kind of metadata can be one of the following:</p>

<ul>
 <li>If {{htmlattrxref("name", "meta")}} is set, it is <em>document-level</em> <em>metadata</em>, applying to the whole page.</li>
 <li>If {{htmlattrxref("http-equiv", "meta")}} is set, it is a <em>pragma directive</em> — information normally given by the web server about how the web page is served.</li>
 <li>If {{htmlattrxref("charset", "meta")}} is set, it is a <em>charset declaration</em> — the character encoding used by the webpage.</li>
 <li>If {{htmlattrxref("itemprop", "meta")}} is set, it is <em>user-defined metadata</em> — transparent for the user-agent as the semantics of the metadata is user-specific. {{experimental_inline}}</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2>

<pre class="brush: html">&lt;meta charset="utf-8"&gt;

&lt;!-- Redirect page after 3 seconds --&gt;
&lt;meta http-equiv="refresh" content="3;url=https://www.mozilla.org"&gt;
</pre>

<h2 id="Accessibility_concerns">Accessibility concerns</h2>

<h3 id="Refreshing_content">Refreshing content</h3>

<p>Pages set with a <code>refresh</code> value run the risk of having the time interval being too short. People navigating with the aid of assistive technology such as a screen reader may be unable to read through and understand the page's content before being automatically redirected. The abrupt, unannounced updating of the page content may also be disorienting for people experiencing low vision conditions. </p>

<ul>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/Understanding_WCAG/Operable#Guideline_2.2_—_Enough_Time_Provide_users_enough_time_to_read_and_use_content">MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 2.1 explanations</a></li>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/Understanding_WCAG/Understandable#Guideline_3.2_—_Predictable_Make_Web_pages_appear_and_operate_in_predictable_ways">MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 3.1 explanations</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/time-limits-required-behaviors.html">Understanding Success Criterion 2.2.1  | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/time-limits-postponed.html">Understanding Success Criterion 2.2.4  | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/consistent-behavior-no-extreme-changes-context.html">Understanding Success Criterion 3.2.5  | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0</a></li>
</ul>

<h3 id="Viewport_scaling">Viewport scaling</h3>

<p>Disabling zooming capabilities by setting <code>user-scalable</code> to a value of <code>no</code> prevents people experiencing low vision conditions from being able to read and understand page content.</p>

<ul>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/Understanding_WCAG/Perceivable#Guideline_1.4_Make_it_easier_for_users_to_see_and_hear_content_including_separating_foreground_from_background">MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 1.4 explanations</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-scale.html">Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.4  | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0</a></li>
</ul>

<h2 id="Specifications">Specifications</h2>

<table class="standard-table">
 <thead>
  <tr>
   <th scope="col">Specification</th>
   <th scope="col">Status</th>
   <th scope="col">Comment</th>
  </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('Referrer Policy', '#referrer-policy-delivery-meta', '&lt;meta name="referrer"&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('Referrer Policy')}}</td>
   <td>Defines values and semantics of <code>&lt;meta name="referrer"&gt;</code>.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML WHATWG', 'semantics.html#the-meta-element', '&lt;meta&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML WHATWG')}}</td>
   <td>Added <code>itemprop</code> attribute</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML5 W3C', 'document-metadata.html#the-meta-element', '&lt;meta&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML5 W3C')}}</td>
   <td>Added <code>charset</code> attribute</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML4.01', 'struct/global.html#h-7.4.4.2', '&lt;meta&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML4.01')}}</td>
   <td> </td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Browser_compatibility">Browser compatibility</h2>

<p>The information shown below has been pulled from MDN's Github (<a href="https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data">https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data</a>).</p>

<p class="hidden">The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out <a href="https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data">https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data</a> and send us a pull request.</p>

<p>{{Compat("html.elements.meta")}}</p>

<h2 id="See_also">See also</h2>

<ul>
 <li>The other elements containing metadata: {{HTMLElement("base")}}, {{HTMLElement("head")}}, {{HTMLElement("link")}}, {{HTMLElement("style")}},{{HTMLElement("title")}}.</li>
</ul>