Meta Tag Analyzer
Paste the HTML source of any page and get an instant audit of everything in its <head>: title and description length with a Google preview, canonical and robots directives, Open Graph and Twitter Card tags, and hreflang alternates, with clear warnings for anything missing or wrong.
Last updated:
Google preview
Social share preview
Issues & checks
Basic SEO tags
Open Graph
Twitter / X Card
hreflang alternates
All other meta & link tags
How to use the Meta Tag Analyzer
- Open the page you want to audit, press Ctrl+U (View Source) and copy all of the HTML.
- Paste the HTML into the box, upload a saved .html file, or try the sample page.
- Add the page URL (optional) so relative links resolve and the canonical can be compared with the real address.
- Click Analyze Meta Tags. The report updates instantly and also re-runs as you edit.
- Fix the issues listed in red and amber, then copy the report as text or JSON to share with your team.
What this meta tag checker looks at
| Tag | Example | Guideline |
|---|---|---|
| Title | <title>Sourdough Bread Recipe | Bakery</title> | Unique per page, main topic first, about 50-60 characters (Google cuts at roughly 600 px). |
| Meta description | <meta name="description" content="..."> | One per page, roughly 70-160 characters, a specific summary that earns the click. |
| Canonical | <link rel="canonical" href="https://..."> | Exactly one, absolute https URL, usually pointing to the page itself. |
| Robots | <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> | Omit it for normal pages (the default is index, follow). Use noindex only for pages that must stay out of search. |
| Viewport | <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> | Required for mobile-friendly rendering. |
| Charset | <meta charset="utf-8"> | First element in the head, within the first 1024 bytes. |
| Open Graph | <meta property="og:image" content="https://..."> | og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url are required; images about 1200 x 630 px. |
| Twitter / X | <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"> | twitter:card is needed; title, description and image fall back to Open Graph. |
| hreflang | <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://..."> | Absolute URLs, valid ISO codes, a self-reference, x-default, and return links on every version. |
How the length checks work
Search engines do not truncate by character count but by display width. The analyzer measures your title in 20 px Arial and your description in 14 px Arial, the fonts Google uses on desktop, and compares them with the usual limits of about 580 px for titles and 920 px for descriptions. Wide letters such as W and M use more space than i or l, so two titles with the same number of characters can behave differently. Treat these numbers as close estimates: Google may also rewrite titles and snippets when it thinks another text better matches the search.
Common meta tag mistakes
- Leftover noindex from a staging site. It silently removes the page from search results.
- Relative canonical or og:image URLs such as
/img/cover.jpg. Social platforms need fullhttps://addresses. - Tags pushed out of the head. If an element that is not allowed in the head (a
div, animg, stray text) appears before your meta tags, the HTML parser closes the head early and everything after it lands in the body, where search engines may ignore it. This tool parses your HTML the same way a browser does and flags it. - Wrong hreflang codes like
en_US(underscore),en-UK(the region is GB) or a missing self-reference. - Duplicate titles and descriptions copied across templates, which makes pages compete with each other.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a title tag be?
Google does not set a fixed character limit; it cuts titles that are wider than the result area, which is about 600 pixels on desktop. In practice that is roughly 50 to 60 characters. This analyzer shows both the character count and an estimated pixel width so you can see when a title will be truncated.
How long should a meta description be?
Aim for about 70 to 160 characters. Google truncates snippets at around 920 pixels on desktop (roughly 155 to 160 characters) and often rewrites descriptions it finds too short or unrelated to the query, so write a specific, complete summary of the page.
Why can't the tool fetch my page by URL?
Browsers block web pages from reading other websites' HTML (the CORS rule), so a purely client-side tool cannot download arbitrary pages. Pasting the source also lets you audit pages behind a login, staging sites and local files, and your HTML never leaves your device.
What does a canonical tag do?
The rel=canonical link tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page when the same content is reachable at several addresses (with parameters, http and https, trailing slash variants). It should be an absolute URL, appear only once, and normally point to the page itself.
What are the required Open Graph tags?
The Open Graph protocol lists og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url as the basic required properties. og:description and og:site_name are strongly recommended, and og:image should be an absolute URL, ideally 1200 x 630 pixels for large link previews.
How does hreflang work?
Each language or regional version of a page lists every version, including itself, with link rel=alternate hreflang=code href=URL. Codes are an ISO 639-1 language, optionally followed by an ISO 3166-1 region, such as en, en-GB or es-419, plus x-default for the fallback page. The links must be absolute and reciprocal across all versions.
Is the meta keywords tag still useful?
No for Google: it has ignored the meta keywords tag for ranking since 2009. It does no harm, but it also reveals your target keywords to competitors, so most sites remove it.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.