A meta tag is an HTML tag that gives information about the content of a web page,
such as what HTML specifications a web page follows or description of a web pages's content. A meta tag, however, does not affect how a web page is displayed on a browser. The most common uses for meta tags are the keyword, description and robots exclusion attributes.

A common myth about meta tags is that they are the "secret ingredient" to obtaining optimal search engine rankings. In fact, only some major search engines use meta-tag content for relevancy. Some search engines use meta-tag content when they display the results of a search query. And some search engines (and almost all directories) do not use meta-tag content at all.