If you have a website, Metadata is one term you must have come across while adding content. Metadata is important for marketers to drive sales on their websites.
Metadata is the concise form of information that we showcase on our website. Search engines do not have enough time to go through every word of the content on your website. This is where metadata helps search engines determine what your website is all about.
The more accurate the information is, the better the search engine will be able to rank your website.
The importance of metadata can be understood by the fact that experts consider it a fundamental block to understanding the true SEO marketing meaning.
Seeing how new marketers are having a hard time understanding what metadata is all about, we have curated a guide to help them out. In addition, we will also take a look at whether or not it is still important in 2022,
Table of Contents
What Is Metadata?
Simply put, metadata is a concise form of the data.
We all know how SEO works. We publish content, search engines’ crawlers index the content, and with every relevant search, the content is ranked.
Well, that is just a simple explanation. Here is the catch –
Search engines’ crawlers do not scan the whole content on your website. Instead, it simply scans your metadata. Metadata acts like a small description of the whole content. This helps the search engines complete their task more effectively.
To increase your chances of ranking higher on SERPs, you need to have proper metadata with the right keywords in it.
Is Metadata Still Important?
Many experts have stated that Metadata is no longer important or plays any influential role in ranking. But, if you dig a bit deeper, you will find that it still holds some influence.
We have seen some cases where metadata seems to have some power in enhancing the search engine result page rankings, especially when you optimize your website for local SEO.
So, the bottom line is that YES, metadata is important even today in 2022. Though their effects might have been diminished, they still hold some power to influence your SEO rankings.
How Can Metadata Be Used To Improve Your Website?
Metadata is used to optimize a website at every phase. Whether we are talking about designing a webpage, publishing content, or adding text for images, everything needs the metadata for the perfect optimization.
Let’s take a closer look at how metadata can be used to revamp your website’s health and performance.
Meta Titles
A meta title or a title tag is displayed above your web page’s description. Whenever someone searches for the right query and your website or web page ranks, your meta title is shown on the SERPs.
Every webpage on your website needs to have metadata. This allows your website to be relevant to the metadata listed on your website.
Meta Description
A meta description appears underneath the meta title on the search listing page. It contains a short summary of the content that a user can expect from the web page.
Like the meta title, a meta description is used to lure the visitor to the website by offering a glimpse of the information they are looking for.
Image ‘Alt’ Text
Search engines usually can’t read images. So, how come search engines filter out online images with relevant keywords? Well, it is because of the metadata.
While publishing content, the publisher attacks the text content and the image. This text content is known as Alt-Text (Alternative Text). It provides a short description of the image and connects it with relevant keywords.
Moreover, Alt-Text is not only important for your SERPs, but it also helps the user understand what kind of images are on the web page in case images fail to load.
Conclusion
The answer is definitely YES. Metadata is still relevant to search engine results and will continue to be a player in the SEO game.
However, you mustn’t forget that it is one of the supportive pillars for SEO organizations. You need a combined effort of quality content and good website practices to get the best results.