To find meta tags on a website, open the page, press Ctrl+U (Cmd+Option+U on a Mac) to view the source, and search for <meta and <title. For the live version after scripts run, use your browser's developer tools. A browser extension or an online checker can list the same tags in a neat table.
Checking meta tags helps you fix your own pages and learn from others. This guide shows four ways to see them, explains what each tag means, and points out which tags Google actually uses.
What will you see when you find meta tags on a website?
Meta tags live in the <head> section at the top of a page's HTML. Visitors do not see them on screen. A typical head looks like this:
<title>Blue Running Shoes | Example Store</title>
<meta name="description" content="Light running shoes in five sizes.">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<meta property="og:title" content="Blue Running Shoes">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/blue-shoes">
The title and canonical lines are not meta tags in the strict sense, but you will find them in the same place and check them at the same time. A canonical link names the main version of a page when several URLs show the same content.
Method 1: View the page source
This is the fastest way and works in every desktop browser.
- Open the page you want to check.
- Right-click an empty part of the page and choose "View page source", or press Ctrl+U (Cmd+Option+U in Chrome on a Mac).
- Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F) and search for
<meta. - Jump through each match. Then search for
<titleandcanonical.
The source shows the HTML exactly as the server sent it. That is close to what a search bot first receives. If a tag is missing here, a script may still add it later, which leads to the next method.
Method 2: Use developer tools
Developer tools show the page after JavaScript has run. Many modern sites and plugins add or change tags with scripts, so this view can differ from the source.
- Press F12, or right-click and choose "Inspect".
- Open the Elements tab (Inspector in Firefox).
- Expand the
<head>line by clicking its arrow. - Read the meta tags, or press Ctrl+F inside the panel and search for "meta".
The Network tab is useful too. Reload the page, click the first request, and read the response headers. Some sites send robots rules as an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header instead of a meta tag, and you will only see them here. Our guide on adding meta tag headers to a URL explains how that header works.
Method 3: Use an extension or online checker
SEO browser extensions and free online checkers read the head for you and list the title, description, robots, canonical and Open Graph tags in one table. Many also show the length of the title and description. This is handy when you check many pages. You can find such helpers in our SEO tools directory.
Keep in mind that each tool reads the page in its own way. If a result looks odd, confirm it with the page source or developer tools.
Method 4: Check from the command line
If you are comfortable with a terminal, two short commands help. To see the server's headers, including any X-Robots-Tag:
curl -I https://example.com/page
To pull just the meta lines from the HTML:
curl -s https://example.com/page | grep -i "<meta"
This shows the raw server response, much like the page source, without any scripts.
Which meta tags does Google actually use?
Once you can find meta tags on a website, the next step is knowing which ones matter. Google's Search Central docs list the tags it supports. The main ones:
| Tag | How Google uses it |
|---|---|
| description | Sometimes used as the snippet under your title |
| robots / googlebot | Controls indexing and snippets |
| viewport | Signals a mobile-friendly page |
| google-site-verification | Proves you own the site in Search Console |
A few facts surprise many site owners:
- Google ignores meta keywords. Its docs say the tag has no effect on indexing or ranking.
- The description is not always shown. Google builds snippets mainly from page content. It uses the meta description when that describes the page better.
- The title is not always shown either. Google draws title links from the title element, but also from headings,
og:titleand links to the page.
Open Graph tags (the ones starting with og:) mainly control how links look when people share them on social sites.
What should you look for when checking a page?
Use this short checklist on your own pages:
- One title, unique to the page, that clearly says what it is about.
- One meta description that sums up the page in a sentence or two.
- No stray
noindexon a page you want in search results. This is a common leftover from a test site. - A canonical link that points to the page itself, or to the right main version.
- A viewport tag, so the page works on phones.
When you look at a competitor's page, focus on their titles and descriptions. They show how others phrase the same topic. Then write your own, better version instead of copying. For more on making your listings stand out, see search engine listing optimization.
The simplest way to find meta tags on a website is to view the source and search for "meta". Use developer tools for pages built with scripts, and check the response headers for robots rules you cannot see in the HTML.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see meta tags on a phone?
Mobile browsers do not make it easy. Some let you type view-source: before the URL in the address bar. An online meta tag checker is usually the simpler option on a phone.
Why is a meta tag in developer tools but not in the page source?
A script added it after the page loaded. The page source shows the HTML the server sent, while developer tools show the page after scripts run. Google can render JavaScript, but tags in the original HTML are the safest choice.
Do meta keywords still matter?
Not for Google. Google states that it does not use the meta keywords tag for indexing or ranking. You can leave it out of your pages.
