The Complete Guide to Meta Tags for SEO (2026)
Title, description, canonical, robots, OG and Twitter tags — what they do and how to write them.
Meta tags are the invisible instructions that tell search engines and social platforms what your page is about. Get them right and you control your listings; get them wrong and Google invents them for you.
The essential tag checklist
| Tag | Purpose | Length guideline |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Search listing headline | 50–60 chars |
| Meta description | Listing snippet | 150–160 chars |
| Canonical | Prevents duplicate-indexing | 1 per page |
| Robots | Index/follow control | per page |
| Open Graph | Social card control | 1200 × 630 image |
| Twitter Card | X card control | summary_large_image |
Example: a well-formed head
<title>How to Compress Images — Free & Private | Vizo Tool</title>
<meta name="description" content="Compress JPG, PNG and WEBP to 50 KB or 100 KB in your browser. No uploads, no sign-up, unlimited and free." />
<link rel="canonical" href="https://vizotool.com/compress" />Try the meta tag generator
Writing a title that earns the click
- Lead with the keyword, then the benefit.
- Keep it under 60 characters or Google truncates.
- Add your brand at the end, not the start.
- Match the title to the page content — no bait.
Duplicate titles kill CTR
Every page needs a unique title and description. Duplicates waste your crawl budget and confuse users.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Generate perfect meta tags
Title, description, canonical, OG and Twitter — with a live SERP preview.
Amar Lodhi
Founder, Vizo Tool
Written by Amar Lodhi, who builds fast, private, browser-based tools that save people time.
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