Metadata serves as the skeleton for your website by providing information about the data on your site. This data can be optimized just like the content on your site. Here are three kinds of metadata that can be optimized:
- Title Metadata
Title metadata is the most important data on your website. It is what leads your page and makes the first waves on your site. If you optimize any metadata, let it be your title metadata, as its the face of your site on the SERP.
2. Description Metadata
Description metadata is the information provided below your title on the SERP. This brief description can’t always be controlled by the site owner, as Google will often choose the description from your site, but with proper optimization, this information can be controlled.
3. Keyword Metadata
Keyword metadata is a less utilized tool but can still be relevant when optimizing your site. The kicker to proper keyword metadata keeping the keywords broad and concise. The shorter they are, the more likely it is that they are searched. The more broad they are, the more likely it is that a search will fall under their umbrella.
Source: https://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/websites/seo/
3 Responses
I completely agree that optimizing metadata is a crucial aspect of SEO. The title metadata is especially important as it’s the first thing that users see on the SERP. While description metadata can sometimes be out of our control, proper optimization can still make a difference. And even though keyword metadata is often overlooked, using broad and concise keywords can increase the chances of your site being found through search.
I didn’t know there were so many specific types of metadata! I’m glad that you mentioned that optimizing all three of these types will drastically improve your overall SEO. Do you have any good strategies for coming up with broad keywords that aren’t too long?
Optimizing metadata is definitely easy to overlook and I would bet that there are tons of websites that have optimized content but no optimized metadata. I would agree that title metadata is pretty crucial to include.