Meta Tag Checker
Check every tag in a page's head in one go: title, meta description, robots, canonical, viewport, charset, language, Open Graph, X cards, icons and more. Get a score, a search-result preview and a snippet for what is missing.
- 50+ checks in one report
- Search result preview
- Copy-ready snippet for missing tags
Want to fine-tune the snippet? Use the Title and Meta Description Preview, or write the social tags with the Open Graph Generator.
Every tag that shapes search and social previews
The report groups the checks so the problems that cost you traffic come first.
Title and description
Missing, empty, duplicate, too long or too short, with how each may look in a Google result.
Robots and canonical
Noindex and nofollow, contradictions between the meta tag and the HTTP header, and missing, relative or conflicting canonicals.
Viewport, charset and language
Mobile viewport, UTF-8 near the top of the page, and a valid lang attribute.
Open Graph and X cards
Title, description, image, URL and type for link previews, plus the card type and fallbacks for X.
Icons and app tags
Favicon, Apple touch icon, theme colour and web app manifest.
International and extras
Hreflang alternates, meta refresh, generator and keywords tags, and site verification tags.
Recommended lengths and values
Google's limits are set in pixels, so these character counts are a safe guide.
| Tag | Recommended | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Title | 30 to 60 characters | Longer titles are cut with an ellipsis. Put the main keyword first. |
| Meta description | 70 to 160 characters | Not a ranking factor, but it sells the click. Google may rewrite it. |
| og:image | 1200 x 630 pixels | Absolute https URL. Under 8 MB. |
| Viewport | width=device-width, initial-scale=1 | Don't block zoom with user-scalable=no. |
| Charset | UTF-8 | Declare it in the first 1024 bytes of the page. |
| Canonical | One absolute URL | Self-referencing unless the page is a duplicate. |
| twitter:card | summary_large_image | Falls back on Open Graph tags when other fields are missing. |
How to check a page's meta tags
Three steps from a URL to a clean head.
Enter a URL or paste HTML
Fetch a live page, or paste the source of a page you haven't published.
Work through the problems
Fix the red items first, then the amber warnings. Each one says how.
Copy the snippet
Paste the suggested tags for anything missing, adjust the wording, and run the check again.
Meta tag habits that prevent problems
Most meta tag problems come from templates and plugins, not from one page.
One of each
A page needs a single title, description, canonical and viewport. Plugins and themes often add a second copy.
Unique per page
Write a different title and description for every page. Duplicates make pages compete with each other.
Watch the noindex
A noindex left over from a staging site is one of the most costly mistakes. Check it after every launch.
Absolute URLs
Use full https addresses in canonical and og:image so crawlers and social networks never guess.
Keep the head valid
A stray div or img in the head closes it early, and every tag after it is ignored.
Re-check after changes
Run the check after a theme, plugin or migration change, when tags are most likely to break.
What meta tags are and what a meta tag checker reads
Meta tags are small elements in the head of a page that describe it to browsers, search engines and social networks. People also use the term for the title element and for link tags such as the canonical, even though those are technically not meta elements. None of them show on the page, so a mistake can sit there for months without anyone noticing.
A meta tag checker reads the whole head the way a crawler does and tells you what is missing, doubled or contradictory. Google supports only a short list of meta tags, including description, robots, viewport, a charset declaration and site verification, and it ignores the ones it does not support. The keywords tag is one of those. Other tags, such as Open Graph, are read by social networks and messaging apps instead of search.
The tags with the biggest consequences are the quiet ones. A stray noindex can remove a page from search, a second canonical can send mixed signals, and a missing viewport tag leaves mobile browsers without instructions for drawing the page. The description is different: it only sometimes becomes the snippet. Checking the head after every launch, theme update or plugin change is a few minutes of work that prevents the costly kind of mistake.
When to check a page's meta tags
Check the head whenever something that writes tags could have changed, and always after a launch.
Right after launch
A noindex or a staging canonical often survives the move to the live site. Check the home page and one page per template on launch day, before search engines act on the wrong rule.
After a plugin or theme update
Updates can add a second title, description or canonical, or switch off the tags you relied on. Run the check on a typical post and a typical product or service page.
Before sharing a link
Open Graph and X tags decide the image, headline and summary people see in a post or chat. Check them before a launch announcement so you do not share a blank preview.
During a migration
Compare old and new heads for canonicals, robots rules and hreflang. A single template fault can change thousands of URLs at once.
On multilingual or Nepali pages
Confirm the lang value, the charset and any hreflang alternates, so English and Nepali versions point to each other and display text correctly.
When a result looks wrong
If the wrong title, snippet or image appears in search or in a chat, read the tags first. The cause is often a missing, doubled or overridden tag.
Meta tag mistakes and how to fix them
Most problems come from tools that write tags automatically, not from anyone typing them wrong.
Two copies of the same tag
What goes wrong: A theme and an SEO plugin each output a title, description or canonical, so the page has two, often with different values. Crawlers must guess which one you meant.
The fix: Pick one source for each tag and switch off the other in its settings. Run the check again and confirm each tag now appears once.
A forgotten noindex
What goes wrong: The tag was added to keep a site out of search while it was being built, then copied to the live site. Pages quietly drop out of the index.
The fix: Remove the rule, then request indexing for key pages in Search Console. Add a launch checklist step that reads the robots tag and header on live pages.
Relative or conflicting canonicals
What goes wrong: A canonical written as /page/ instead of a full address, or one that points to another page by mistake, can lead search engines to prefer the wrong URL.
The fix: Use a full absolute https address, and make it self-referencing unless the page is truly a duplicate of another. Google recommends absolute URLs.
A stray element in the head
What goes wrong: A div, an img or an unclosed tag in the head can end it early, so tags written after that point are read as body content. Google asks for a valid head.
The fix: Find the element named in the report and move it into the body. Look at plugin scripts and tracking snippets first, since they often inject markup.
Incomplete Open Graph tags
What goes wrong: Without the four basics, og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url, social networks guess the title and image, and often pick a logo or nothing at all.
The fix: Add all four, with a full https URL for the image. Facebook documents a minimum of 200 by 200 pixels and recommends at least 1200 by 630 for sharp previews.
Tags that do nothing, or the wrong job
What goes wrong: The keywords tag has no effect on Google. A meta refresh used as a redirect is also discouraged, because it is not supported everywhere and can confuse users.
The fix: Delete keywords, since it is not worth maintaining. Replace any meta refresh redirect with a server-side 301, which is what Google recommends.
Meta tag terms explained
- Meta tag
- A
metaelement in the page head that passes information to browsers, crawlers or apps. Clients process the tags they support and ignore the rest. - Meta robots
- A tag such as
noindexornofollowthat tells search engines how to index and serve a page. Google follows the more restrictive rule when two robots tags conflict. - X-Robots-Tag
- The HTTP header version of a robots rule. It works for non-HTML files such as PDFs and images, which cannot hold a meta tag.
- Canonical link
- A
link rel="canonical"element that names the preferred URL when similar pages exist. It is a strong signal that search engines weigh, not a command they must follow. - Viewport
- A tag that tells mobile browsers how wide to draw the page. Google treats its presence as a sign the page is mobile friendly.
- Charset
- The declared character encoding, normally UTF-8. Google recommends Unicode, and it matters for Devanagari and other non-Latin text.
- Open Graph
- A set of
og:tags that tell social networks and chat apps which title, image and URL to show when a page is shared. It is a protocol for link previews, not a search ranking tag. - Meta refresh
- A tag that sends visitors to another URL after a delay. Google recommends a server-side 301 redirect in its place, as the tag is not supported by every browser.
Related tools, guides and services
The head is one layer of a page. These tools, guides and services cover the rest.
Title and Meta Description Preview
Test how a title and description may look in a Google result, with pixel widths and truncation.
ToolCanonical URL Checker
Follow a page's canonical signals in more detail, including headers and redirects.
ToolOpen Graph Generator
Write the social tags for a page and copy the finished code.
ToolSocial Media Preview Tool
See how a link may look when it is shared on social networks.
GuidePages not indexed: causes and fixes
Work out whether a robots rule, a canonical or something else is keeping a page out of Google.
ServiceTechnical SEO service
Get template faults, robots rules and canonicals reviewed and fixed across your site.
Built by
Madhav Kushwaha
SEO, AEO, GEO & Digital Marketing Consultant in Kathmandu, Nepal, and trainer at ODcrU Academy and TechAxis Institute. Meta tags are small, and small mistakes in them are expensive: a stray noindex, two canonicals, a missing viewport. I built this checker to read the whole head the way a crawler does and call out exactly what is wrong, in the order I would check it in an audit.
Meta Tag Checker: Frequently Asked Questions
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