What happens if the meta tags are present in the document body?

html templates asp-classic seo meta-tags

87,613

Solution 1

This is of course invalid as per HTML4.01. META tags are only allowed within HEAD (just like, say, TITLE) so by putting it into a BODY, you're essentially creating an invalid markup.

From the cursory tests, it seems that some browsers (e.g. Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4) actually put these elements into HEAD when creating a document tree. This is not very surprising: browsers are known to tolerate and try to interpret all kinds of broken markup.

Having invalid markup is rarely a good idea. Non-standard handling by browsers might lead to various hard-to-pin rendering (and behavioral) inconsistencies. Instead of relying on browser guessing, it's best to follow a standard.

I don't know how search engines react to such tag soup, but I wouldn't risk experimenting to find out :) Perhaps they only parse HEAD tag for certain information and will skip your BODY-contained tags altogether. Or maybe they consider these to be some malicious gambling attempts and black-list pages containing such markup. Who knows.

The bottom line — avoid this whenever possible.

Solution 2

The bottom line is to avoid this whenever possible when the DOCTYPE forbids it. I think this is definitely permitted in HTML5 and very useful in cases using microdata. Example: http://schema.org/Event

Solution 3

If your aim is search engine optimization, then it is probably a good idea to follow the standards and put all your meta tags in the <head>. However, as far as browser behavior goes, if you place <meta> tags into your <body> they will still function. I decided to test this using multiple <meta http-equiv="refresh"/> tags and <title> tags in an otherwise standards-compliant document.

The results of my tests:

Firefox 18, Firefox 3.6, Firefox Mobile, Chrome 24, Chrome for Mobile, Opera 12, IE6, IE8, IE10:

All <meta> tags in the body were processed.
The first <title> tag in the document was processed, even if it was in the body. Subsequent <title> tags were ignored.
The earliest meta refresh directive took effect, implying that both were processed.

IE9:

Same as above, except all <title> tags in the body were ignored.
IE10 in IE9 Standards mode also behaves like this.
IE9 in IE8 Standards mode behaved the same as IE8, allowing 1 <title> tag in the body.

So, what happens when you use meta tags in the body? By and large, they seem to work fine. The meta tags will probably be processed, so if you can't put them in the head then I wouldn't fret too much.

Solution 4

I wouldn't do it. That's not where those tags go, and the search engines might view it as spamming. If you can reorganize the master page you can always add a contentplaceholder up in the head section. I've done it trivially with:

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="HeadTags" runat="server" />

This way you can add whatever content you like in the head section back on your page:

<asp:Content ID="Whatever" ContentPlaceHolderID="HeadTags" runat="server" >

    <meta ... >

</asp:Content>

Solution 5

meta tags can be added anywhere in the HTML.

The web crawlers can read them but the only issue is when you have to share your pages over some application like facebook messenger, whatsapp etc.

These applications only read meta tags present inside the head tag. So, the og:image, og:description properties of meta tag if placed inside body tag are not read and hence won't be displayed while sharing in such applications.

If its only for SEO purpose, you can add meta tag anywhere but it is recommended to add inside head tag only

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87,613

Author by

Salman A

Updated on July 05, 2022

Comments

Salman A almost 2 years

I am working on a ASP application and the code, template and files are organized in a way that does not allow me to alter anything outside the body tag. So I am thinking about inserting the meta tags inside the body -- like this:

<!-- FEW ASP INCLUDES -->
<html>
    <head>
    <!-- FALLBACK TITLE AND DESCRIPTION -->
    <title>Default Title</title>
    <meta name="description" content="Default Description">
</head>
<body>
    <!-- SOME HTML MARKUP -->
    <div class="dynamic-content">
        <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="dynamic-content" -->
        <!-- THIS IS WHERE I CAN WRITE ASP CODE -->
        <title><%= Page.Meta.GetTitle( yada, yada ) %></title>
        <meta name="description" content="<%= Page.Meta.GetDescription( yada, yada ) %>">
        <!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
    </div>
    <!-- SOME MORE HTML MARKUP -->
</body>
</html>

I am wondering how good it is to put meta tags inside the body of an HTML document. How does it affect:

search engines
browsers

AnthonyWJones over 14 years

Not a Classic ASP solution though
John Lockwood over 14 years

No, probably not. But as crappy answers go it not only works in production, it has four votes.
Salman A over 14 years

Classical ASP solution... that's the essence of the question!
Salman A over 14 years

Sigh, I'll have re-arrange all code. Any suggestions that help make this process less painful will be appreciated.
Andrew Barber over 11 years

Please note you have to surround HTML code bits with backticks ` to get them to display literally.
Husky over 10 years

If you're using HTML5 it is allowed to use <meta> tags inside a <body> tag as long as there is an itemprop attribute present. See the spec.
Michael Lawton about 9 years

Can't find it in the spec but w3.org validator also allows meta tags with property (rdfa-lite) attributes when using html5
Ken Sharp about 8 years

W3S states that <meta> must always be in the <head>: w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp but I don't see that being true in the HTML5 spec: w3.org/TR/html5/document-metadata.html#the-meta-element . Nevertheless I use them for exactly the same reason: to add metadata (to blog posts). Seems to validate happily enough.
Ken Sharp about 8 years

...though I've just realised I'm forced to use XHTML, so I don't really know. I definitely prefer plain HTML5!
RavuAlHemio about 8 years

If HTML5 allows tag x within tag y, then XHTML5 allows tag x within tag y too. The big difference is that XHTML5 must be valid XML (i.e. no unclosed tags), making it easier to parse than HTML.