What is the function of the <meta> tag in HTML?

The tag in HTML is designed specifically to provide metadata about the HTML document. This metadata can include a variety of information such as the character set used, the author of the document, the description of the page, keywords for search engines, and viewport settings for responsive design. This information is crucial for browsers and search engines to properly display the page and index it accurately.

By placing metadata within the tags in the document's head, developers can influence how their pages are understood and interacted with by both users and tools that crawl the web. For instance, a well-defined description in a tag can improve how a webpage appears in search results, potentially affecting click-through rates.

Other choices, while they serve important functions in HTML, do not relate to the role of the tag. The creation of links to CSS stylesheets is handled by the tag, the main content of the document is structured using content tags like

or

, and specifying JavaScript files is done using the