HEAD

A simple guide to HTML <head> elements

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Quick Overview

HEAD is a comprehensive guide to HTML <head> elements, providing a curated list of everything that can go in the <head> of an HTML document. It serves as a reference for web developers and designers, offering a detailed breakdown of various meta tags, link attributes, and other important elements that belong in the document head.

Pros

Extensive and well-organized collection of <head> elements
Regularly updated to include modern web standards and best practices
Includes explanations and use cases for each element
Available in multiple languages

Cons

May be overwhelming for beginners due to the sheer amount of information
Some less common or deprecated elements might not be immediately relevant to all users
Lacks in-depth explanations for complex concepts or attributes

Getting Started

To use this resource, simply visit the GitHub repository at https://github.com/joshbuchea/HEAD. The main README file contains the entire guide, organized into sections such as:

Minimum recommended
Elements
Meta
Link
Icons
Social
Browsers / Platforms
Other Resources

Browse through the sections to find the relevant <head> elements for your project. Copy and paste the desired elements into your HTML file's <head> section, adjusting the content as needed for your specific use case.

Competitor Comparisons

awesome-web-components

2,857

A curated list of awesome Web Components resources.

Pros of awesome-web-components

Comprehensive list of web component resources and libraries
Regularly updated with new content and contributions
Covers a wide range of topics related to web components

Cons of awesome-web-components

Less focused on specific implementation details
May require more time to find relevant information
Not as directly applicable to immediate development needs

Code comparison

While HEAD provides specific meta tag examples:

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

awesome-web-components focuses on component libraries and usage:

import { LitElement, html } from 'lit-element';

class MyElement extends LitElement {
  render() {
    return html`<p>Hello, World!</p>`;
  }
}

Summary

HEAD is a concise reference for HTML head elements, offering immediate practical value for web developers. awesome-web-components serves as a comprehensive resource for web component technologies, libraries, and best practices. While HEAD provides specific code snippets for quick implementation, awesome-web-components offers a broader overview of the web component ecosystem, making it valuable for developers looking to explore and adopt web component technologies in their projects.

html5-boilerplate

56,396

A professional front-end template for building fast, robust, and adaptable web apps or sites.

Pros of HTML5 Boilerplate

Provides a more comprehensive starting point for web projects
Includes additional features like a 404 page and server configs
Offers a complete build process with optimization tools

Cons of HTML5 Boilerplate

Larger file size and more complex structure
May include unnecessary features for simpler projects
Requires more setup and configuration

Code Comparison

HEAD:

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Page Title</title>

HTML5 Boilerplate:

<!doctype html>
<html class="no-js" lang="">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title></title>

HEAD focuses on essential meta tags, while HTML5 Boilerplate provides a more structured HTML template with additional classes and elements.

HEAD is a concise reference for common <head> elements, making it ideal for quick lookups and simple projects. HTML5 Boilerplate offers a more robust starting point with additional features and optimizations, suitable for larger projects requiring a comprehensive foundation.

Front-End-Checklist

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Pros of Front-End-Checklist

More comprehensive, covering a wider range of front-end development topics
Includes detailed explanations and best practices for each checklist item
Offers prioritization levels (High, Medium, Low) for checklist items

Cons of Front-End-Checklist

May be overwhelming for beginners due to its extensive coverage
Requires more frequent updates to keep up with rapidly changing front-end technologies

Code Comparison

HEAD focuses on <head> elements:

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Page Title</title>

Front-End-Checklist covers broader topics:

<!-- Performance optimization -->
<link rel="preload" href="style.css" as="style">
<link rel="preload" href="main.js" as="script">

<!-- Accessibility -->
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">

Both repositories provide valuable resources for front-end developers, but they serve different purposes. HEAD is more focused and specific to <head> elements, making it easier to use for quick reference. Front-End-Checklist offers a more comprehensive guide covering various aspects of front-end development, making it suitable for thorough project reviews and learning.

hugo

74,645

The world’s fastest framework for building websites.

Pros of Hugo

Full-featured static site generator with extensive functionality
Active development with frequent updates and a large community
Supports themes, content management, and multilingual sites

Cons of Hugo

Steeper learning curve due to its complexity
Requires installation and setup, unlike HEAD which is just a reference
May be overkill for simple projects or quick reference needs

Code Comparison

HEAD (HTML reference):

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Page Title</title>

Hugo (config example):

baseURL: "https://example.org/"
languageCode: "en-us"
title: "My Hugo Site"
theme: "ananke"

Summary

HEAD is a simple, lightweight reference for HTML <head> elements, while Hugo is a comprehensive static site generator. HEAD is ideal for quick lookups and basic HTML structure, whereas Hugo offers powerful features for building complex websites. The choice between them depends on the project's scope and requirements.

eleventy

16,839

A simpler site generator. Transforms a directory of templates (of varying types) into HTML.

Pros of Eleventy

Full-featured static site generator with extensive documentation
Supports multiple template languages and data sources
Active development with regular updates and community support

Cons of Eleventy

Steeper learning curve for beginners
Requires more setup and configuration compared to HEAD
May be overkill for simple projects or single-page websites

Code Comparison

HEAD (HTML meta tags):

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Page Title</title>

Eleventy (Configuration file):

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Add custom filters, shortcodes, etc.
  return {
    dir: {
      input: "src",
      output: "dist"
    }
  };
};

Summary

HEAD is a simple, curated list of HTML head elements, ideal for quick reference and basic website setup. Eleventy is a powerful static site generator with more features and flexibility, suitable for larger projects. HEAD is easier to use for beginners, while Eleventy offers more advanced capabilities but requires more learning and setup time.

Convert designs to code with AI

Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.

Try Visual Copilot

README

ð¤¯ HEAD

A simple guide to HTML <head> elements

Recommended Minimum
Elements
Meta
Link
Icons
Social
Browsers / Platforms
Browsers (Chinese)
App Links
Other Resources
Related Projects
Other Formats
Translations
Contributing
- Contributors
Author
License

Recommended Minimum

Below are the essential elements for any web document (websites/apps):

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<!--
  The above 2 meta tags *must* come first in the <head>
  to consistently ensure proper document rendering.
  Any other head element should come *after* these tags.
 -->
<title>Page Title</title>

meta charset - defines the encoding of the website, utf-8 is the standard

meta name="viewport" - viewport settings related to mobile responsiveness

width=device-width - use the physical width of the device (great for mobile!)

initial-scale=1 - the initial zoom, 1 means no zoom

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Elements

Valid <head> elements include meta, link, title, style, script, noscript, and base.

These elements provide information for how a document should be perceived, and rendered, by web technologies. e.g. browsers, search engines, bots, etc.

<!--
  Set the character encoding for this document, so that
  all characters within the UTF-8 space (such as emoji)
  are rendered correctly.
-->
<meta charset="utf-8">

<!-- Set the document's title -->
<title>Page Title</title>

<!-- Set the base URL for all relative URLs within the document -->
<base href="https://example.com/page.html">

<!-- Link to an external CSS file -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">

<!-- Used for adding in-document CSS -->
<style>
  /* ... */
</style>

<!-- JavaScript & No-JavaScript tags -->
<script src="script.js"></script>
<script>
  // function(s) go here
</script>
<noscript>
  <!-- No JS alternative -->
</noscript>

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Link

<!-- Points to an external stylesheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://example.com/styles.css">

<!-- Helps prevent duplicate content issues -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/article/?page=2">

<!-- Links to an AMP HTML version of the current document -->
<link rel="amphtml" href="https://example.com/path/to/amp-version.html">

<!-- Links to a JSON file that specifies "installation" credentials for the web applications -->
<link rel="manifest" href="manifest.json">

<!-- Links to information about the author(s) of the document -->
<link rel="author" href="humans.txt">

<!-- Refers to a copyright statement that applies to the link's context -->
<link rel="license" href="copyright.html">

<!-- Gives a reference to a location in your document that may be in another language -->
<link rel="alternate" href="https://es.example.com/" hreflang="es">

<!-- Provides information about an author or another person -->
<link rel="me" href="https://google.com/profiles/thenextweb" type="text/html">
<link rel="me" href="mailto:name@example.com">
<link rel="me" href="sms:+15035550125">

<!-- Links to a document that describes a collection of records, documents, or other materials of historical interest -->
<link rel="archives" href="https://example.com/archives/">

<!-- Links to top level resource in an hierarchical structure -->
<link rel="index" href="https://example.com/article/">

<!-- Provides a self reference - useful when the document has multiple possible references -->
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://example.com/atom.xml">

<!-- The first, last, previous, and next documents in a series of documents, respectively -->
<link rel="first" href="https://example.com/article/">
<link rel="last" href="https://example.com/article/?page=42">
<link rel="prev" href="https://example.com/article/?page=1">
<link rel="next" href="https://example.com/article/?page=3">

<!-- Used when a 3rd party service is utilized to maintain a blog -->
<link rel="EditURI" href="https://example.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD">

<!-- Forms an automated comment when another WordPress blog links to your WordPress blog or post -->
<link rel="pingback" href="https://example.com/xmlrpc.php">

<!-- Notifies a URL when you link to it on your document -->
<link rel="webmention" href="https://example.com/webmention">

<!-- Enables posting to your own domain using a Micropub client -->
<link rel="micropub" href="https://example.com/micropub">

<!-- Open Search -->
<link rel="search" href="/open-search.xml" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search Title">

<!-- Feeds -->
<link rel="alternate" href="https://feeds.feedburner.com/example" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS">
<link rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/feed.atom" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3">

<!-- Prefetching, preloading, prebrowsing -->
<!-- More info: https://css-tricks.com/prefetching-preloading-prebrowsing/ -->
<link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//example.com/">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://www.example.com/">
<link rel="prefetch" href="https://www.example.com/">
<link rel="prerender" href="https://example.com/">
<link rel="preload" href="image.png" as="image">

ð Link Relations

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Icons

<!-- For IE 10 and below -->
<!-- Place favicon.ico in the root directory - no tag necessary -->

<!-- Icon in the highest resolution we need it for -->
<link rel="icon" sizes="192x192" href="/path/to/icon.png">

<!-- Apple Touch Icon (reuse 192px icon.png) -->
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/path/to/apple-touch-icon.png">

<!-- Safari Pinned Tab Icon -->
<link rel="mask-icon" href="/path/to/icon.svg" color="blue">

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Social

Facebook Open Graph

Most content is shared to Facebook as a URL, so it's important that you mark up your website with Open Graph tags to take control over how your content appears on Facebook. More about Facebook Open Graph Markup

<meta property="fb:app_id" content="123456789">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page.html">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:title" content="Content Title">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="A description of what is in the image (not a caption)">
<meta property="og:description" content="Description Here">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Site Name">
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US">
<meta property="article:author" content="">

ð Open Graph protocol
ð Test your page with the Facebook Sharing Debugger

Twitter Card

With Twitter Cards, you can attach rich photos, videos and media experiences to Tweets, helping to drive traffic to your website. More about Twitter Cards

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@site_account">
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@individual_account">
<meta name="twitter:url" content="https://example.com/page.html">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Content Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Content description less than 200 characters">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
<meta name="twitter:image:alt" content="A text description of the image conveying the essential nature of an image to users who are visually impaired. Maximum 420 characters.">

ð Getting started with cards â Twitter Developers
ð Test your page with the Twitter Card Validator

Twitter Privacy

If you embed tweets in your website, Twitter can use information from your site to tailor content and suggestions to Twitter users. More about Twitter privacy options.

<!-- disallow Twitter from using your site's info for personalization purposes -->
<meta name="twitter:dnt" content="on">

Schema.org

<html lang="" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Article">
    <head>
      <link rel="author" href="">
      <link rel="publisher" href="">
      <meta itemprop="name" content="Content Title">
      <meta itemprop="description" content="Content description less than 200 characters">
      <meta itemprop="image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">

Note: These meta tags require the itemscope and itemtype attributes to be added to the <html> tag.

ð Getting Started - schema.org
ð Test your page with the Rich Results Test

Pinterest lets you prevent people from saving things from your website, according to their help center. The description is optional.

<meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" description="Sorry, you can't save from my website!">

Facebook Instant Articles

<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta property="op:markup_version" content="v1.0">

<!-- The URL of the web version of your article -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/article.html">

<!-- The style to be used for this article -->
<meta property="fb:article_style" content="myarticlestyle">

OEmbed

<link rel="alternate" type="application/json+oembed"
  href="https://example.com/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ffoo%2F&amp;format=json"
  title="oEmbed Profile: JSON">
<link rel="alternate" type="text/xml+oembed"
  href="https://example.com/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ffoo%2F&amp;format=xml"
  title="oEmbed Profile: XML">

ð oEmbed format

QQ/Wechat

Users share web pages to qq wechat will have a formatted message

<meta itemprop="name" content="share title">
<meta itemprop="image" content="http://imgcache.qq.com/qqshow/ac/v4/global/logo.png">
<meta name="description" itemprop="description" content="share content">

ð Code Format Docs

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Browsers / Platforms

Apple iOS

<!-- Smart App Banner -->
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=APP_ID,affiliate-data=AFFILIATE_ID,app-argument=SOME_TEXT">

<!-- Disable automatic detection and formatting of possible phone numbers -->
<meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no">

<!-- Launch Icon (180x180px or larger) -->
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/path/to/apple-touch-icon.png">

<!-- Launch Screen Image -->
<link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="/path/to/launch.png">

<!-- Launch Icon Title -->
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-title" content="App Title">

<!-- Enable standalone (full-screen) mode -->
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">

<!-- Status bar appearance (has no effect unless standalone mode is enabled) -->
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black">

<!-- iOS app deep linking -->
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=APP-ID, app-argument=http/url-sample.com">
<link rel="alternate" href="ios-app://APP-ID/http/url-sample.com">

ð Configuring Web Applications

Google Android

<meta name="theme-color" content="#E64545">

<!-- Add to home screen -->
<meta name="mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
<!-- More info: https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/installtohomescreen -->

<!-- Android app deep linking -->
<meta name="google-play-app" content="app-id=package-name">
<link rel="alternate" href="android-app://package-name/http/url-sample.com">

Google Chrome

<link rel="chrome-webstore-item" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/APP_ID">

<!-- Disable translation prompt -->
<meta name="google" content="notranslate">

Microsoft Internet Explorer

<!-- Force IE 8/9/10 to use its latest rendering engine -->
<meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">

<!-- Disable automatic detection and formatting of possible phone numbers by Skype Toolbar browser extension -->
<meta name="skype_toolbar" content="skype_toolbar_parser_compatible">

<!-- Windows Tiles -->
<meta name="msapplication-config" content="/browserconfig.xml">

Minimum required xml markup for browserconfig.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<browserconfig>
   <msapplication>
     <tile>
        <square70x70logo src="small.png"/>
        <square150x150logo src="medium.png"/>
        <wide310x150logo src="wide.png"/>
        <square310x310logo src="large.png"/>
     </tile>
   </msapplication>
</browserconfig>

ð Browser configuration schema reference

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Browsers (Chinese)

360 Browser

<!-- Select rendering engine order -->
<meta name="renderer" content="webkit|ie-comp|ie-stand">

QQ Mobile Browser

<!-- Locks the screen into the specified orientation -->
<meta name="x5-orientation" content="landscape/portrait">

<!-- Display this document in fullscreen -->
<meta name="x5-fullscreen" content="true">

<!-- Document will be displayed in "application mode" (fullscreen, etc.) -->
<meta name="x5-page-mode" content="app">

UC Mobile Browser

<!-- Locks the screen into the specified orientation -->
<meta name="screen-orientation" content="landscape/portrait">

<!-- Display this document in fullscreen -->
<meta name="full-screen" content="yes">

<!-- UC browser will display images even if in "text mode" -->
<meta name="imagemode" content="force">

<!-- Document will be displayed in "application mode"(fullscreen, forbidding gesture, etc.) -->
<meta name="browsermode" content="application">

<!-- Disabled the UC browser's "night mode" for this document -->
<meta name="nightmode" content="disable">

<!-- Simplify the document to reduce data transfer -->
<meta name="layoutmode" content="fitscreen">

<!-- Disable the UC browser's feature of "scaling font up when there are many words in this document" -->
<meta name="wap-font-scale" content="no">

ð UC Browser Docs

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App Links

<!-- iOS -->
<meta property="al:ios:url" content="applinks://docs">
<meta property="al:ios:app_store_id" content="12345">
<meta property="al:ios:app_name" content="App Links">

<!-- Android -->
<meta property="al:android:url" content="applinks://docs">
<meta property="al:android:app_name" content="App Links">
<meta property="al:android:package" content="org.applinks">

<!-- Web fall back -->
<meta property="al:web:url" content="https://applinks.org/documentation">

ð App Links

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Other Resources

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Related Projects

Atom HTML Head Snippets - Atom package for HEAD snippets
Sublime Text HTML Head Snippets - Sublime Text package for HEAD snippets
head-it - CLI interface for HEAD snippets
vue-head - Manipulating the meta information of the HEAD tag for Vue.js

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Other Formats

ð PDF

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ð Translations

ð®ð© Bahasa
ð§ð· Brazilian Portuguese
ð¨ð³ Chinese (Simplified)
ð©ðª German
ð®ð¹ Italian
ð¯ðµ Japanese
ð°ð· Korean
ð·ðº Russian/Ð ÑÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹
ðªð¸ Spanish
ð¹ð· Turkish/TÃ¼rkÃ§e

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ð¤ Contributing

Open an issue or a pull request to suggest changes or additions.

Guide

The HEAD repository consists of two branches:

1. `master`

This branch consists of the README.md file that is reflected on the htmlhead.dev website. All changes to the content of the guide should be made in this file.

Please follow these steps for pull requests:

{:.list-style-default}

Modify only one tag, or one related set of tags at a time
Use double quotes on attributes
Don't include a trailing slash in self-closing elements â the HTML5 spec says they're optional
Consider including a link to documentation that supports your change

2. `gh-pages`

This branch is responsible for the htmlhead.dev website. We use Jekyll to deploy the README.md markdown file to GitHub Pages. All website related modifications should be made in this branch.

You may find it helpful to review the Jekyll Docs and understand how Jekyll works before working in this branch.

ð Contributors

ð¤ Author

Josh Buchea

GitHub: @joshbuchea
Mastodon: @joshbuchea@hachyderm.io

ð Support

If this project was helpful for you or your organization, please considering supporting my work directly:

Everything helps, thanks! ð

â Josh

ð License

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Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI

Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.

Try Visual Copilot

Top Related Projects

Quick Overview

Pros

Cons

Getting Started

Competitor Comparisons

Pros of awesome-web-components

Cons of awesome-web-components

Code comparison

Summary

Pros of HTML5 Boilerplate

Cons of HTML5 Boilerplate

Code Comparison

Pros of Front-End-Checklist

Cons of Front-End-Checklist

Code Comparison

Pros of Hugo

Cons of Hugo

Code Comparison

Summary

Pros of Eleventy

Cons of Eleventy

Code Comparison

Summary

Convert designs to code with AI

README

ð¤¯ HEAD

Table of Contents

Recommended Minimum

Elements

Meta

Link

Icons

Social

Facebook Open Graph

Twitter Card

Twitter Privacy

Schema.org

Pinterest

Facebook Instant Articles

OEmbed

QQ/Wechat

Browsers / Platforms

Apple iOS

Google Android

Google Chrome

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Browsers (Chinese)

360 Browser

QQ Mobile Browser

UC Mobile Browser

App Links

Other Resources

Related Projects

Other Formats

ð Translations

ð¤ Contributing

Guide

1. master

2. gh-pages

ð Contributors

ð¤ Author

ð Support

ð License

Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI

ð¤¯ HEAD

ð Translations

ð¤ Contributing

1. `master`

2. `gh-pages`

ð Contributors

ð¤ Author

ð Support

ð License