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HTML5 Tutorial• 6 min read

The <head> Tag, Viewport & SEO Metadata

Meta viewport, Open Graph tags, canonical URLs, and preloading assets

The <head> element contains machine-readable metadata about the HTML document that instructs browsers, search engine crawlers, and social networks how to parse and render the page.

Essential Head Metadata Tags

<meta charset="UTF-8">: Declares standard character encoding, preventing garbled special characters and emojis.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">: Critical for mobile responsiveness, matching screen width to device hardware pixels.

<link rel="canonical" href="...">: Informs Google of the definitive master URL to prevent duplicate content penalties.

Open Graph Tags (<meta property="og:title" ...>): Control rich card previews when your link is shared on Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Slack.

Production <head> Template
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Codexia Academy | Learn Coding Online</title>
  <meta name="description" content="50+ comprehensive developer learning tracks with verified certification credentials.">
  
  <!-- Open Graph Social Media Cards -->
  <meta property="og:title" content="Codexia Academy">
  <meta property="og:description" content="The premier online developer learning platform.">
  <meta property="og:image" content="https://codexia.org/og-preview.png">
  <meta property="og:url" content="https://codexia.org">
  
  <!-- Preconnect and Favicon -->
  <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
  <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon.svg">
</head>
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Test Yourself With Exercise

+15 XP

Which meta tag is strictly required in the `<head>` to ensure proper scaling on mobile smartphones?