Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of meta-tags by the leading higher educational institutions (HEIs). It explores the various kinds of messages conveyed by HEIs in the meta-description tags of their website homepage. It further examines that whether the messages conveyed by HEIs are in accordance with the prospective students' perspective. Design/methodology/approach: A list of leading 200 universities was procured from the website of "The Times Higher Education". Meta-keywords and meta-description tags of the HEIs websites' homepage were drawn using online software. Descriptive analysis of the meta-tags was conducted to analyze their use by HEIs. Quantitative content analysis tool was applied to understand the messages conveyed by HEIs. Findings: Meta-description tags are defined by more than half (58.79 percent), whereas meta-keywords are written by approximately a quarter (27.47 percent) of HEIs on their homepage. While defining their meta-description tags, HEIs frequently used words related to the themes such as institution, focus area, academic programs, image building, geography, student group and environment. Practical implications: It will help the HEIs to understand the importance of meta-tags. Moreover, HEIs will be able to define their meta-description tags better. Originality/value: This is the first research paper to explore and analyze the meta-tags of the HEIs websites.