What is metadata and why is it important? - The question of what metadata is is very common and it is important that you understand the meaning of the term with the importance it has. Whether you call it ‘Metadata’ or ‘Metadata’, it doesn't matter. The Google search engine sees these two names as the same term. So, what exactly is metadata and how does it affect you?
First, let's set up the definition, from which we will use the term ‘website’ to include traditional website. The two are the same when discussing Metadata and most other SEO guidelines.
What is metadata in general terms?
What is the meaning of the ‘Meta’ prefix? It is derived from the Greek language, meaning ‘after’ and ‘out’ but is also expanded to ‘about’. The final definition is the definition used in relation to website data. Basically, Metadata provides information about data available on a website or on a website post.
That information has various forms:
- Purpose of the data, or description of the purpose of the page.
- Description of individual elements in the page.
- The way data is created, for example, in HTML format.
- Data creation date.
- Who created it - author's details.
- Where data is created on a computer network.
- Standard is used to create data.
When discussing how you create your website, we will narrow this meaning down to how you use Metadata for SEO. A more precise definition of the term for you would be:
Metadata is information that you provide to your search engine that is not visible to website visitors. In other words, you have two sets of documents on the website. The algorithm is visible to search engine algorithms and the subset is visible to humans. People don't see the Metadata, other than viewing the source for the page.
Metadata is used by webmasters to describe different factors on each website or post so that search engine algorithms can easily establish relevancy from that page content to search terms. Used by anyone who uses that search engine to find information.
Website source code - Header and middle
If you place the cursor anywhere in the website or post on the website, then right click, you will find the options menu. Click on ‘View page source’ and you will find the HTML source code for that page. This code is converted into a browser by the browser.
If you check the page source code, you'll see 'HTML' informing the browser that the page is in HTML and then 'Head' telling the browser that this is not visible to humans. . However, search engines crawl the website and use the Metadata in the Head section to help show its relevance to any search term being used.
The Body is located below the Head. Everything in the Body is viewable for humans, apart from a few other 'Metadata' used for SEO purposes that you can't see.
Metadata example
Metadata comes in many forms. Large percentages are generated by software that uses your web hosting service. Do not change any element other than the following. There are four basic types of metadata that are important to SEO, which will influence search engine rankings.
See more: Build a Website with WordPress
Some of these are common, while others are not familiar with you from the experience you have in website writing and administration. It should be noted here that, although many of these tag properties will be automated with plugins, it is important that you check the contents of the Meta tags and make sure they match the focus of the post on the website or for the keyword you are looking for rankings.
Page title tag:
Meta title tags appear in the Head section in HTML for each website. It makes no difference if it is a regular website, post. You must use the main keyword or phrase in the title tag because that's what the Google indexing algorithm will look at first.
When you view the search engine results page for any search term, the title you see with any listing will be copied from the Title tag. Google will truncate the title to several fixed widths. So make sure that the title is no larger than the fixed width. Check it out for yourself using this tool.
The title tag will appear in this format:
- This is the Page Title I have and it cannot exceed fixed widths.
The trouble is, this is limited to a fixed width, so will be displayed in Google listings as:
- This is the Page Title I have - and it is limited to a fixed width
Google appears to display a ellipsis instead of any last full word that exceeds the allowed width. You can use WordPress SEO plugin to check if it exceeds that fixed width.
If you do not provide a Title tag to the page Google has decided to list, then Google will take the paragraph from the text on the page you own. This is not necessarily reader-friendly, so make sure you choose your own.
Meta tag description:
The Meta description tag must clearly explain the main topic of the post on the website or page and must also include the main keyword / phrase. This is the content you see below the title on the SERPS list at Google.
Like the title, if you don't provide a Meta Description tag, Google will grab the paragraph from your page - usually the first few words that seem to be relevant for the searcher. Obviously, it is best not to leave this to Google but only to describe the description you want to use. You do this by using the following format in the Head section at the HTML page:
According to SEO 'experts,' compliance with this recommendation will not make a difference to search engine rankings. However, if you check Google SERPS for any keyword, you will see that keyword is contained in both the title and description in the list.
There are cases where there are lists that do not contain keywords and still achieve high rankings, but they are not popular. Test it yourself by searching using any search term you like - how many listings don't contain the least search terms?
You will find some, but these are LSI and Hummingbird algorithms on Google that are working. You cannot be wrong if you use the main keyword in the Title and Description tags.
Listen to what Matt Cutts has to say about the Meta Description tag here:
Metadata on the page
Many people are misunderstanding that Metadata only appears at the beginning of HTML. There are other "data about data" that many people tend to overlook. The most common is that the ‘Alt’ attribute is metadata in a purer sense than the word ‘data about data’
The 'Alt' attribute is used in HTML with image, audio or video files. It is used to deliver information to such a file if it does not resolve in the web browser - it informs the reader what this space must be.
For example:
In case the hummingbird image does not resolve clearly in the browser, the ‘alt’ attribute explains to the reader that the image contains a hummingbird and flower image. Google considers this an additional service to the reader and thus uses it as a ranking factor.
Not only that, many audio browsers read page content to visually impaired users will read the content in the alt attribute, so blind users understand that there is current image and content. This is better than the completely ignored image.
Another benefit of using such tags is that Universal Search uses the ‘alt’ tag to display website images on ‘Blended Results’. Blended Results is a relatively new concept in displaying search results, in which news, videos, audio, websites, websites, and images are displayed together in SERPS for clear search terms. Alt tags are taken into account by indexing and ranking algorithms if they show this result.
Meta Robots Tag
Meta Robots tags are another type of metadata you should know about. This type of metadata allows you to control how each page of your website is indexed by search engines. For example, if you don't want the page to be included in the search engine index, place the Meta tag in the header at HTML like this:
- (rest of head data)
If there are no restrictions, the attribute is not needed, although Google wants to put the robots.txt file in the root of the website containing this information:
With this, Googlebot is allowed to access every page on the website, in addition to the pages with detailed noindex instructions shown above.
To create a robot.txt file, open Notepad, copy the above text into the file, and name the file robots.txt. Now save and upload the file to the website's root directory.
If owning a specific file in your website doesn't want to be indexed, such as a sales page, select the file to be indexed and state the URL of others not indexed in Robots.txt.file.
You can use Meta Robots tags in many ways - check the website post on this topic for more information.
See more: Create Web
Keyword Metatag
If you're wondering why the Meta Keywords data doesn't appear here, it's because Google doesn't use it. You will forget it or add about six important keywords if you feel it is necessary but it will not affect rankings at all. However, do not be confused with the tags in the website - this tag may be important for those who search for websites with detailed keywords, but they will not help improve rankings.
This is Matt Cutts on the Meta Keywords tag:
Summary
It is the basic way to use Metadata with websites. Some types of Metadata appear in the Header of HTML while others are included in tags and attributes in the page body. Wherever it appears, Metadata is very important information and Google will be particularly interested. Metadata is directed to search engines and Google is very interested in how to implement the instructions and apply that data. Make sure the guidelines are clear, but if you understand correctly, you have a helpful way to direct search engines to the important areas of your website and explain each site clearly.
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