Meta tags

Meta tags are pieces of information in a page’s header section that give search engines, browsers and other programs details about the page. Visitors don’t see them directly on the page. But they control how a page appears in search results, whether it may enter the index at all, how it is displayed on smartphones and what the preview looks like when someone shares the link.

Where meta tags are located

Meta tags sit in the head element of the source code, before the actual content:

<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Metal raised beds: 40 models | Garden Store</title>
<meta name="description" content="Metal raised beds in many sizes, delivered in 3 days.">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.your-store.com/images/raised-beds.jpg">
</head>

Strictly speaking, the title isn’t a meta tag but an element of its own. The canonical tag and hreflang are link elements, not meta tags, either. In everyday usage, however, they are often counted among them, because they sit in the same section and have the same task: providing information about the page.

The meta tags that count for SEO

Meta description

The description is the short text below the title in the search results. It isn’t a ranking factor, but it helps decide whether someone clicks. Google doesn’t always adopt it: if another section of the page matches the search query better, Google shows that instead. A good description summarises the content in one or two sentences and gives a reason to click. More on this under description and click-through rate.

Meta robots: controlling indexing and display

The robots meta tag is the most powerful meta tag. It defines what search engines may do with a page:

• noindex: the page should not be in the index. This is the right way to remove a page from search results.

• nofollow: the links on the page should not be followed. Google treats this as a hint.

• nosnippet: no text snippet should be shown.

• max-snippet, max-image-preview, max-video-preview: limit the length of the text snippet and the size of preview images.

• unavailable_after: the page should no longer be shown from a certain date, for example for a time-limited promotion.

If the robots tag is missing, index, follow applies automatically. So it only needs to be set if something is to be restricted. With name="googlebot" instead of name="robots", an instruction applies only to Google.

Two points are often confused. First: a page with noindex must be reachable for Google. If it is also blocked in the robots.txt, Google never sees the noindex. Second: for files without an HTML head, such as PDFs, the same instructions exist as the HTTP header X-Robots-Tag.

Meta tags and AI search

The robots directives also affect the AI features of Google Search. With nosnippet, max-snippet or the data-nosnippet attribute for individual sections, you can control which content Google may use in snippets and therefore also in AI Overviews. Restricting too strictly means being named less often there. More on this in the article on Google’s guide to AI search and in the entry on Generative Engine Optimization. Other AI providers, on the other hand, are controlled via the robots.txt.

Viewport and charset

The viewport tag ensures that a page is displayed at the right width on smartphones instead of as a shrunken desktop page. As Google generally assesses a page as it appears on a smartphone, it is a basic requirement. More on this under mobile SEO. The charset tag defines the character encoding so that umlauts and special characters appear correctly.

Open Graph and social media

Open Graph tags such as og:title, og:description and og:image determine what a page looks like when it is shared on social networks, messengers or chat programs. For product pages, a good preview image is worthwhile, because shared links with an appealing preview are clicked considerably more often. They have no influence on ranking.

Meta keywords: a relic

In the early days of search engines, the keywords tag was a ranking factor and was massively stuffed with search terms. Google hasn’t evaluated it for many years. It does no harm, but it costs maintenance effort and reveals to competitors which terms a store is targeting.

Meta tags in Shopware and Shopify

Shopware 6 offers dedicated fields for meta title, meta description and keywords in the SEO section of products, categories and Shopping Experiences. If they remain empty, Shopware generates default values. For pages that shouldn’t enter the index, such as filter pages or internal search results, the storefront sets noindex depending on version and configuration, often supplemented by extensions.

Shopify maintains page title and description in the “Search engine listing” section of every product, collection and page. All other meta tags are output by the theme. Via the seo.hidden metafield, a page can be given noindex and removed from the sitemap.

More on the peculiarities of the systems under Shopware SEO and Shopify SEO.

Typical mistakes

• noindex carried over from the test system: the whole store is blocked for Google after launch.

• noindex combined with a robots.txt block: Google doesn’t see the noindex, and the page stays in the index.

• The same description on many pages: Google ignores it and chooses its own snippets; more on this under duplicate content.

• Missing viewport tag: the page is barely usable on smartphones.

• Duplicate meta tags: theme and app output the same tags twice, often with different content.

• Snippet rules that are too strict: nosnippet on important pages prevents meaningful snippets and mentions in AI Overviews.

How to check meta tags

• In the source code: open the page source and search for meta in the head section.

• In Google Search Console: URL inspection shows whether a page may be indexed or is excluded by noindex. How to proceed is described in the article on Google indexing.

• With crawling tools: they find missing, duplicate and contradictory meta tags across the whole store.

Frequently asked questions

Which meta tags does every page need?

Title, description, viewport and charset. The robots tag only if a page is to be restricted.

Are meta tags a ranking factor?

The title yes, the description indirectly via click-through rate, the keywords not at all. The robots tag decides whether a page can rank at all.

How do I remove a page from Google?

With noindex in the robots tag, and the page must remain crawlable so that Google sees the noindex. For quick, temporary removal there is also the “Removals” tool in Search Console.

Do I need meta keywords?

No. Google doesn’t evaluate them.

Do meta tags influence whether ChatGPT or Gemini use my page?

At Google, nosnippet and max-snippet also affect the AI features. Other AI providers are mainly controlled via the robots.txt.