Which tags matter
- Title: the blue link in Google results and the name in browser tabs. Say what the page is and who it’s for.
- Meta description: the text Google often shows under the title. Google sometimes picks other text from your page instead.
- Canonical: tells Google which address to list when the same page is reachable at several.
- Robots: a
noindexvalue keeps the page out of Google completely. - Viewport: makes the page fit phone screens.
- Language: the
langattribute says what language the page is in.
The old keywords tag doesn’t help. Google stopped using it for ranking years ago.
Good lengths
There’s no official limit, but titles longer than about 60 characters and descriptions longer than about 160 often get cut off in results. Give every page its own title and description.
When a tag keeps a page out of Google
Builders often add noindex to preview addresses, and sometimes it stays on after you publish. If your page has it, Google won’t list the page however good it is. Our guide to getting into Google walks through the other common causes.