---
title: Head
description: "Add custom elements to the `head` of your page with the built-in Head component."
url: "https://nextjs.org/docs/pages/api-reference/components/head"
version: 16.2.2
lastUpdated: 2026-04-02
router: Pages Router
prerequisites:
- "API Reference: /docs/pages/api-reference"
- "Components: /docs/pages/api-reference/components"
---
We expose a built-in component for appending elements to the `head` of the page:
```jsx
import Head from 'next/head'
function IndexPage() {
return (
My page title
Hello world!
)
}
export default IndexPage
```
## Avoid duplicated tags
To avoid duplicate tags in your `head` you can use the `key` property, which will make sure the tag is only rendered once, as in the following example:
```jsx
import Head from 'next/head'
function IndexPage() {
return (
My page title
Hello world!
)
}
export default IndexPage
```
In this case only the second `` is rendered. `meta` tags with duplicate `key` attributes are automatically handled.
> **Good to know**: `` and `<base>` tags are automatically checked for duplicates by Next.js, so using key is not necessary for these tags.
> The contents of `head` get cleared upon unmounting the component, so make sure each page completely defines what it needs in `head`, without making assumptions about what other pages added.
## Use minimal nesting
`title`, `meta` or any other elements (e.g. `script`) need to be contained as **direct** children of the `Head` element,
or wrapped into maximum one level of `<React.Fragment>` or arrays—otherwise the tags won't be correctly picked up on client-side navigations.
## Use `next/script` for scripts
We recommend using [`next/script`](/docs/pages/guides/scripts) in your component instead of manually creating a `<script>` in `next/head`.
## No `html` or `body` tags
You **cannot** use `<Head>` to set attributes on `<html>` or `<body>` tags. This will result in an `next-head-count is missing` error. `next/head` can only handle tags inside the HTML `<head>` tag.
---
For a semantic overview of all documentation, see [/docs/sitemap.md](/docs/sitemap.md)
For an index of all available documentation, see [/docs/llms.txt](/docs/llms.txt)