The HTML <head>
element contains machine-readable information (metadata) about the document, like its title, scripts, and style sheets.
Note: <head>
primarily holds information for machine processing, not human-readability. For human-visible information, like top-level headings and listed authors, see the <header>
element.
Content categories | None. |
---|---|
Permitted content |
If the document is an Otherwise, one or more elements of metadata content where exactly one is a |
Tag omission | The start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <head> element is an element.The end tag may be omitted if the first thing following the <head> element is not a space character or a comment. |
Permitted parents | An <html> element, as its first child. |
Implicit ARIA role | No corresponding role |
Permitted ARIA roles | No role permitted |
DOM interface | HTMLHeadElement |
Attributes
This element includes the global attributes.
profile
- The URIs of one or more metadata profiles, separated by white space.
Example
<!doctype html> <html> <head> <title>Document title</title> </head> </html>
Notes
HTML5-compliant browsers automatically create a <head>
element if its tags are omitted in the markup. This auto-creation is not guaranteed in ancient browsers.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of '<head>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | No change from latest shapshot |
HTML5 The definition of '<head>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Obsoleted profile |
HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<head>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
head | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
profile | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See also
- Elements that can be used inside the
<head>
: