HTML Head

Define the character set used:

Define a description of your web page:

Define keywords for search engines:

Define the author of a page:

Refresh document every 30 seconds:

Example of <meta> tags:

Example

Setting The Viewport

HTML5 introduced a method to let web designers take control over the viewport, through the <meta> tag.

The viewport is the user's visible area of a web page. It varies with the device, and will be smaller on a mobile phone than on a computer screen.

You should include the following <meta> viewport element in all your web pages:

A <meta> viewport element gives the browser instructions on how to control the page's dimensions and scaling.

The width=device-width part sets the width of the page to follow the screen-width of the device (which will vary depending on the device).

The initial-scale=1.0 part sets the initial zoom level when the page is first loaded by the browser.

Here is an example of a web page without the viewport meta tag, and the same web page with the viewport <meta> tag:

HTML Head

The HTML <head> Element

The <head> element is a container for metadata (data about data) and is placed between the tag and the body tag.

HTML metadata is data about the HTML document.

Metadata is not displayed.

Metadata typically define the document title, character set, styles, links, scripts, and other meta information.

The following tags describe metadata: <title>, <style>, <meta>, <link>, <script>, and <base>.

The HTML <title> Element

The <title> element defines the title of the document, and is required in all HTML/XHTML documents.

The HTML <style> Element

The <style> element is used to define style information for a single HTML page:

Example

<style>

body {background-color: powderblue;}

h1 {color: red;}

p {color: blue;}

</style>

The <title> element:

defines a title in the browser tab

provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites

displays a title for the page in search engine results

A simple HTML document:

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Page Title</title>

</head>

<body>

The content of the document......

</body>

</html>

The HTML <link> Element

The <link> element is used to link to external style sheets:

Example

The HTML <meta> Element

The <meta> element is used to specify which character set is used, page description, keywords, author, and other metadata.

Metadata is used by browsers (how to display content), by search engines , and other web services.

Tip: If you are browsing this page with a phone or a tablet, you can click on the two links below to see the difference.

Without the viewport meta tag

With the viewport meta tag

The HTML <script> Element

The <script> element is used to define client-side JavaScripts.

This JavaScript writes "Hello JavaScript!" into an HTML element with id="tes":

Example

function myFunction {

document.getElementById("tes").innerHTML = "Hello JavaScript!";

}

</script>

Tip: To learn all about JavaScript, visit our JavaScript Tutorial.

The HTML <base> Element

The <base> element specifies the base URL and base target for all relative URLs in a page:

Example

Omitting <html>, <head> and <body>?

According to the HTML5 standard; the <html>, the <body>, and the <head> tag can be omitted.

The following code will validate as HTML5:

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>

<title>Page Title</title>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

<p>This is a paragraph<\p>

However, omitting the <head> tag has been a common practice for quite some time now.

HTML head Elements

Tag Description

<head> Defines information about the document

<title> Defines the title of a document

<base> Defines a default address or a default target for all links on a page

HTML Head | Ecency