: Which meta names are case-sensitive? I am the developer of an HTML checking tool. I want to check meta names to make sure they match case-sensitively when it matters. All I've come across so

@Sherry384

In HTML5, there are two sets of metadata names:


standard metadata names, defined in the HTML5 spec
other metadata names, registered on the WHATWG wiki page MetaExtensions


For the standard metadata names, it is required that they are case-insensitive:


Names are case-insensitive, and must be compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner.


For other metadata names, it says:


The name should not be confusingly similar to any other defined name (e.g. differing only in case).


Note the "should". So registered values may be case-sensitive.

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@Sue5673885

Google is a little bit over exact on this to avoid requests on the verification topic. It's the content="" part of the verification meta-tag which has to be case sensitive. Not the name="" part as you post it in your answer. Google verifies with help of this meta tag even if the name-part is NOT written as they provide it. So

<meta name="goOgle-sIte-verIficatiOn" content="CaseSensitiveStringASGoogleProvidetIt">

will work fine as does

<meta name="GOOGLE-SITE-VERIFICATION" content="CaseSensitiveStringASGoogleProvidetIt">. (I have tested that.)

This is also consistent with their webmaster help: support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812?hl=en
With the exception of verify, case is generally not important in meta tags. (This is also the official answer to your question, the case in meta-tag-names is generally irrelevant. As it is according to my own experience.)

If your HTML-checking tool should work like Google did, you could generate a warning, but the website should pass your check, even with this "problem" because it still works fine.

As to the "verify-v1" name, I'm not sure if this is still a valid method? On the recent official tools and help pages Google only talks about the google-site-verification tag...

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