Two Dos and Two Don’ts Regarding Website Metadata

Two Dos and Two Don’ts Regarding Website Metadata

When it comes to your website metadata, there are many things to consider. Things like 160 characters, including keywords, Html elements, and more, all come to mind. And while it is important to ensure that every page for your website has the proper titles and meta descriptions, it is also important to make sure you are going about your efforts properly. Search engine optimization, including on the metadata side, is an art form, and there are certain dos and don’ts that you should follow, two in particular for each.

Do #1 is to be sure you write your content for people…AKA humans. A unique title and page description, both part of metadata, will need to be written to attract people, not send them away. You have to be careful as too many keywords and/or robotic writing will simply come off looking like what it is…spammy.

Do #2 would be to keep things new and fresh. It is especially important to do this when you see that certain website pages are not doing as well as you think they should in the search engine results. This may be due to your metadata lacking a bit, so it’s always a great idea to freshen things up a bit and change up your metadata. New and fresh will also give your viewers something new to look at, which can mean a win-win for your website.

Don’t #1 is an oldy, but a goody….don’t panic. If your titles and meta descriptions are not coming up as often as you’d like, it’s okay. In fact, sometimes Google comes up with its own meta description to help better serve the searcher. So, your missing metadata might not be missing at all.

Don’t #2 would be to not repeat yourself. That is what it sounds like…and it really goes back to unique content. Unique goes for metadata too. It will do you little to no good to have titles and descriptions that are almost identical. It might save time, but it will do you no favors with Google.

Like in farming, metadata cultivated properly will yield massive fruit, and metadata done wrong will surely see your crops die off. Your crops are your potential clicks, and your metadata is the very fertilizer that can get those clicks to grow and grow…so long as you go about it by adhering to the two dos and two don’ts.