HTML Guide for meta

The “scheme” attribute on the “meta” element is obsolete. Use only one scheme per field, or make the scheme declaration part of the value.

The <meta> element no longer accepts a scheme attribute, it’s now obsolete and should be removed.

For example, old documents adhering to old definitions in DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) use this HTML tag to define a date:

<meta name="DC.Date.Created" scheme="W3CDTF" content="2009-11-30" />

As the scheme attribute is now obsolete, it should now be removed. The following HTML code will pass current validations, but you should check the exact definition to use if you want to keep using the DCMI tags.

<meta name="DC.Date.Created" content="2009-11-30" />

Using the “meta” element to specify the document-wide default language is obsolete. Consider specifying the language on the root element instead.

meta
lang

Specify the language of your HTML document using the lang attribute on the <html> element instead of using a <meta> tag for the language.

The HTML5 standard encourages specifying the primary language of a document using the lang attribute on the <html> element. The lang attribute should be set to a valid language code, such as en for English or fr for French. Using a <meta> tag to declare the document language is considered obsolete because the <meta> tag cannot convey element-specific language information. The lang attribute is more versatile and directly associates the language with the HTML document structure itself. This approach aligns better with accessibility requirements and helps user agents understand and render the content appropriately.

Here is how you should specify the language using the lang attribute:

Correct usage with lang attribute:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Document with Language Specification</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This document is written in English.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Incorrect usage with <meta> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en">
    <title>This usage is considered outdated</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This should not be done in HTML5.</p>
  </body>
</html>

By defining the language with the lang attribute directly in the <html> tag, you improve the document’s compliance with modern standards and enhance the accessibility and internationalization aspects of your web content.