Meta name Property
Example
Return the value of the content attribute of all meta elements:
var x = document.getElementsByTagName("META");
var txt = "";
var i;
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
txt =
txt + "Name of "+(i+1)+". meta tag: "+x[i].name+"<br>";
}
The result of txt will be:
Name of 1. meta tag: description
Name of 2. meta tag: keywords
Name
of 3. meta tag: author
Try it yourself »
Definition and Usage
The name property sets or returns a name for the information in the content attribute.
The value of the name attribute depends on the value of the content attribute.
There is also an extended list defined in the WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions Page - Anyone is free to edit the page at any time to add a new type. None are formally accepted, but may be in the future. For more information, visit WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions page.
Note: If the http-equiv attribute is set, the name attribute should not be set.
Browser Support
The name property is supported in all major browsers.
Syntax
Return the name property:
metaObject.name
Set the name property:
metaObject.name="application-name|author|description|generator|keywords"
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| application-name | Specifies the name of the Web application that the page represents |
| author | Specifies the name of the author of the document. Example: <meta name="author" content="Hege Refsnes"> |
| description | Specifies a description of the page. Search engines can pick up this description to show with the results of searches. Example: <meta name="description" content="Free web tutorials"> |
| generator | Specifies one of the software packages used to generate the document
(not used on hand-authored pages) Example: <meta name="generator" content="FrontPage 4.0"> |
| keywords | Specifies a comma-separated list of keywords - relevant to the page
(Informs search engines what the page is about). Tip: Always specify keywords (needed by search engines to catalogize the page). Example: <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, meta tag, tag reference"> |
Return Value
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| String | A name for the information in the content attribute |
Meta Object
