The built-in browser <meta> component lets you add metadata to the document.

<meta name="keywords" content="React, JavaScript, semantic markup, html" />

Reference

<meta>

To add document metadata, render the built-in browser <meta> component. You can render <meta> from any component and React will always place the corresponding DOM element in the document head.

<meta name="keywords" content="React, JavaScript, semantic markup, html" />

See more examples below.

Props

<meta> supports all common element props.

It should have exactly one of the following props: name, httpEquiv, charset, itemProp. The <meta> component does something different depending on which of these props is specified.

  • name: a string. Specifies the kind of metadata to be attached to the document.
  • charset: a string. Specifies the character set used by the document. The only valid value is "utf-8".
  • httpEquiv: a string. Specifies a directive for processing the document.
  • itemProp: a string. Specifies metadata about a particular item within the document rather than the document as a whole.
  • content: a string. Specifies the metadata to be attached when used with the name or itemProp props or the behavior of the directive when used with the httpEquiv prop.

Special rendering behavior

React will always place the DOM element corresponding to the <meta> component within the document’s <head>, regardless of where in the React tree it is rendered. The <head> is the only valid place for <meta> to exist within the DOM, yet it’s convenient and keeps things composable if a component representing a specific page can render <meta> components itself.

There is one exception to this: if <meta> has an itemProp prop, there is no special behavior, because in this case it doesn’t represent metadata about the document but rather metadata about a specific part of the page.

Usage

Annotating the document with metadata

You can annotate the document with metadata such as keywords, a summary, or the author’s name. React will place this metadata within the document <head> regardless of where in the React tree it is rendered.

<meta name="author" content="John Smith" />
<meta name="keywords" content="React, JavaScript, semantic markup, html" />
<meta name="description" content="API reference for the <meta> component in React DOM" />

You can render the <meta> component from any component. React will put a <meta> DOM node in the document <head>.

import ShowRenderedHTML from './ShowRenderedHTML.js';

export default function SiteMapPage() {
  return (
    <ShowRenderedHTML>
      <meta name="keywords" content="React" />
      <meta name="description" content="A site map for the React website" />
      <h1>Site Map</h1>
      <p>...</p>
    </ShowRenderedHTML>
  );
}

Annotating specific items within the document with metadata

You can use the <meta> component with the itemProp prop to annotate specific items within the document with metadata. In this case, React will not place these annotations within the document <head> but will place them like any other React component.

<section itemScope>
  <h3>Annotating specific items</h3>
  <meta itemProp="description" content="API reference for using <meta> with itemProp" />
  <p>...</p>
</section>
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