Skillversitas

HTML Head Element

The head element contains metadata about a web page that is not displayed in the browser.

Head Tag

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Page Title</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
    <script src="script.js"></script>
</head>

Important Meta Tags

<!-- Character Encoding -->
<meta charset="UTF-8">

<!-- Viewport -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

<!-- Description -->
<meta name="description" content="Page description">

<!-- Keywords -->
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2">

<!-- Author -->
<meta name="author" content="Author Name">

<!-- Robots -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

Title Element

<title>Page Title - Campus Website</title>

<!-- CSS -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">

<!-- Favicon -->
<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">

<!-- Google Fonts -->
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

Script Element

<!-- External Script -->
<script src="script.js"></script>

<!-- Internal Script -->
<script>
    console.log('Hello!');
</script>

<!-- Async Script -->
<script src="script.js" async></script>

<!-- Defer Script -->
<script src="script.js" defer></script>

Case Study: Complete Head Element

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <!-- Character Encoding -->
    <meta charset="UTF-8">

    <!-- Viewport for mobile -->
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

    <!-- SEO Meta Tags -->
    <title>Technology University - Academic Portal</title>
    <meta name="description" content="Academic portal of Technology University for students and lecturers">
    <meta name="keywords" content="university, campus, academic, student, lecturer">
    <meta name="author" content="Technology University IT Team">
    <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

    <!-- Open Graph -->
    <meta property="og:title" content="Technology University">
    <meta property="og:description" content="Academic Portal">
    <meta property="og:image" content="https://univ-tech.edu/og-image.jpg">
    <meta property="og:url" content="https://univ-tech.edu">

    <!-- Favicon -->
    <link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">

    <!-- Google Fonts -->
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
    <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@300;400;500;600;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- CSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/responsive.css">

    <!-- Canonical URL -->
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://univ-tech.edu">
</head>
<body>
    <!-- Page content -->
</body>
</html>

Everyday Case Study

Case: A developer needs to optimize performance.

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

    <!-- Preconnect for performance -->
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>

    <!-- Preload critical resources -->
    <link rel="preload" href="fonts/main.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
    <link rel="preload" href="css/critical.css" as="style">

    <!-- CSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">

    <!-- Defer non-critical JS -->
    <script src="analytics.js" defer></script>
</head>

Best Practices

  1. Charset always first: For correct encoding
  2. Viewport: For mobile responsiveness
  3. Descriptive title: 50-60 characters
  4. Meta description: 150-160 characters
  5. Preconnect: For performance

Summary

The head element contains important metadata for SEO, performance, and page identity. Always complete the head element with the required tags.