What is the role of the <meta> tag in an HTML document?

The role of the tag in an HTML document is to provide metadata about the document itself. Metadata typically includes information such as the document's character set, author, description, keywords, and viewport settings, which can be essential for search engine optimization and mobile responsiveness.

By using the tag, developers can enhance how web pages are presented and indexed by search engines, thereby improving visibility and accessibility. These attributes do not affect the visual presentation of the page but play a crucial role in improving its functioning and the way it is processed by browsers and crawlers.

The other options describe different functions: defining sections of navigation links, creating hyperlinks, and adding comments, which are served by different HTML elements such as

, , and respectively.