Definition: meta tag

An HTML tag that identifies the contents of a Web page for the search engines. Meta tags are hidden on the page, but they, as well as all the HTML code on a page, can be viewed by selecting View/Source or View/Page Source from the browser menu. Meta tags contain a general description of the page, keywords and copyright information.

Search engines often display the Title tag and Distribution meta tag as the short summary you see on the results page. The Keywords meta tag also helps to place a page in the right results. Following are meta tag examples for this encyclopedia. See Dublin Core and metadata.