HTML Guides for microdata
Learn how to identify and fix common HTML validation errors flagged by the W3C Validator — so your pages are standards-compliant and render correctly across every browser. Also check our Accessibility Guides.
The <meta> element is most commonly used inside the <head> section to define metadata like character encoding, viewport settings, or descriptions. Inside <head>, attributes like charset, http-equiv, and name are perfectly valid. However, the HTML specification also allows <meta> to appear inside the <body> — but only under specific conditions.
When a <meta> element appears in the <body>, it must have either an itemprop attribute (for microdata) or a property attribute (for RDFa). It must also have a content attribute. Additionally, it cannot use http-equiv, charset, or name attributes in this context. These rules exist because the only valid reason to place a <meta> tag in the <body> is to embed machine-readable metadata as part of a structured data annotation — not to define document-level metadata.
Why this matters
- Standards compliance: The HTML living standard explicitly restricts which attributes <meta> can use depending on its placement. Violating this produces invalid HTML.
- Browser behavior: Browsers may ignore or misinterpret <meta> elements that appear in the <body> without proper attributes. For example, a <meta http-equiv="content-type"> tag inside the <body> will have no effect on character encoding, since that must be determined before the body is parsed.
- SEO and structured data: Search engines rely on correctly structured microdata and RDFa. A <meta> element in the body without itemprop or property won’t contribute to any structured data and serves no useful purpose.
Common causes
- Misplaced <meta> tags: A <meta> element meant for the <head> (such as <meta http-equiv="..."> or <meta name="description">) has accidentally been placed inside the <body>. This can happen due to an unclosed <head> tag, a CMS inserting tags in the wrong location, or simply copying markup into the wrong section.
- Missing itemprop or property: A <meta> element inside the <body> is being used for structured data but is missing the required itemprop or property attribute.
Examples
Incorrect: <meta> with http-equiv inside the <body>
This <meta> tag belongs in the <head>, not the <body>:
<body>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<form>
<input type="text" name="q">
</form>
</body>Fixed: Move the <meta> to the <head>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="text" name="q">
</form>
</body>Incorrect: <meta> in the <body> without itemprop or property
<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Offer">
<span itemprop="price">9.99</span>
<meta content="USD">
</div>The <meta> element is missing the itemprop attribute, so the validator reports the error.
Fixed: Add the itemprop attribute
<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Offer">
<span itemprop="price">9.99</span>
<meta itemprop="priceCurrency" content="USD">
</div>Correct: Using property for RDFa
The property attribute is also valid for <meta> elements in the <body> when using RDFa:
<div vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="Event">
<span property="name">Concert</span>
<meta property="startDate" content="2025-08-15T19:00">
</div>Incorrect: <meta name="..."> inside the <body>
The name attribute is only valid on <meta> elements inside the <head>:
<body>
<meta name="author" content="Jane Doe">
<p>Welcome to my site.</p>
</body>Fixed: Move it to the <head>
<head>
<title>My Site</title>
<meta name="author" content="Jane Doe">
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to my site.</p>
</body>Microdata is an HTML specification that lets you embed machine-readable data into your content using three main attributes: itemscope, itemtype, and itemprop. The itemscope attribute creates a new item (a group of name-value pairs), itemtype specifies what kind of thing the item is (using a vocabulary URL like Schema.org), and itemprop defines individual properties within that item. These attributes work together — itemprop only makes sense in the context of an itemscope.
When the validator encounters an itemprop attribute on an element that isn’t a descendant of any element with itemscope, it has no way to associate that property with an item. The property is essentially orphaned. This is a problem for several reasons:
- Search engines can’t use the data. Structured data consumers like Google, Bing, and other crawlers rely on the itemscope/itemprop hierarchy to understand your content. An orphaned itemprop is ignored or misinterpreted.
- Standards compliance. The WHATWG HTML living standard requires that an element with itemprop must be a property of an item — meaning it must have an ancestor with itemscope, or be explicitly referenced via the itemref attribute on an itemscope element.
- Maintenance issues. Orphaned itemprop attributes suggest that surrounding markup was refactored and the microdata structure was accidentally broken.
The most common causes of this error are:
- Missing itemscope — You added itemprop attributes but forgot to define the containing item with itemscope.
- Moved elements — An element with itemprop was moved outside of its original itemscope container during a refactor.
- Copy-paste errors — You copied a snippet that included itemprop but not the parent itemscope.
To fix the issue, either wrap the itemprop elements inside an itemscope container, use itemref to associate distant properties with an item, or remove the itemprop attribute if structured data is not intended.
Examples
Incorrect: itemprop without itemscope
This triggers the validation error because there is no itemscope ancestor:
<div>
<p>My name is <span itemprop="name">Liza</span>.</p>
</div>Correct: itemprop inside an itemscope container
Adding itemscope (and optionally itemtype) to an ancestor element fixes the issue:
<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person">
<p>My name is <span itemprop="name">Liza</span>.</p>
</div>Correct: nested items with their own scope
When an item contains a sub-item, the nested item needs its own itemscope:
<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person">
<p itemprop="name">Liza</p>
<div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/PostalAddress">
<span itemprop="addressLocality">Portland</span>,
<span itemprop="addressRegion">OR</span>
</div>
</div>Correct: using itemref for properties outside the scope
If you can’t restructure your HTML to nest itemprop inside itemscope, use itemref to reference elements by their id:
<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemref="user-name"></div>
<p id="user-name">
My name is <span itemprop="name">Liza</span>.
</p>In this case, the itemprop="name" element is not a descendant of the itemscope element, but the itemref="user-name" attribute explicitly pulls the referenced element’s tree into the item, making it valid.
Incorrect: scope broken after refactoring
A common real-world scenario where the error appears after restructuring:
<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Product">
<span itemprop="name">Widget</span>
</div>
<!-- This was moved out of the div above -->
<span itemprop="price">9.99</span>Fix this by either moving the element back inside the itemscope container, using itemref, or removing the orphaned itemprop.
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