SEO glossary · Updated October 21, 2026

SEO meta tags: which ones Google uses, and which it ignores

Meta tags are snippets of HTML in a page's head that describe the page to browsers and search engines, such as the meta description and robots tag.

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Meta tags are lines of HTML in a page's <head> that give information about the page. Some matter a lot for SEO, some only affect how the page looks when shared, and one famous tag does nothing for Google at all.

The meta tags that matter

Tag	What it does	Google uses it
<title>	The page title; usually the clickable headline in results	Yes (technically an element, not a meta tag)
meta name="description"	A summary Google may show as the snippet	Yes, for snippets
meta name="robots"	Indexing and snippet rules: noindex, nofollow, nosnippet, max-snippet	Yes
meta name="viewport"	Makes the page display properly on phones	Yes, for mobile usability
link rel="canonical"	The preferred URL for duplicate pages	Yes, as a strong hint
meta charset	The character encoding	Needed to read the page correctly
Open Graph (og:) tags	Title, description and image for social sharing	Not for ranking
meta name="keywords"	A list of keywords	No

Meta keywords: ignored since 2009

Google announced in 2009 that it doesn't use the keywords meta tag in web ranking, and its SEO Starter Guide still says Google Search doesn't use it. You can leave it out.

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Emergency Plumber in Pune | Example Plumbing</title>
  <meta name="description" content="24-hour plumbers across Pune. Fixed call-out fee, arrival within 60 minutes.">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/emergency-plumber-pune">
  <meta property="og:title" content="Emergency Plumber in Pune">
</head>

Check it on your own site

What the free audit tests for this

Title tag
Meta description
Viewport
Canonical
Open Graph
Twitter Cards
Indexability

One URL, about 20 seconds, no login. You get the result of every check and the exact fix for the top three issues.

Audit your website free

FAQ

Do meta tags help SEO?+

Some do. The title, meta description, robots and canonical tags affect how Google indexes and shows your page. Meta keywords don't.

Does Google always show my meta description?+

No. Google may write its own snippet from the page content when that better matches the search.

Which meta tags should every page have?+

A title, a meta description, a viewport tag, a charset declaration and, where duplicates exist, a canonical link. Add a robots tag only when you want to restrict indexing or snippets.

Sources

Meta tags and attributes that Google supports — Google Search Central
Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking — Google Search Central Blog (2009-09-21)
Control your snippets in search results — Google Search Central
SEO Starter Guide — Google Search Central (2025-12-10)