What is metadata?
Metadata is essentially just data about data. It describes data about a file, document, or web page. You can also think of it as a brief explanation or summary of a particular piece of data.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: Where is metadata used?
Metadata is used in many ways by virtually any industry you could think of for all types of information systems, including websites, software, e-commerce, and social media.
For the files on your computer, for example, metadata comes in the form of information such as author, file size, and date of creation. It might also include keywords to describe the document.
Metadata for music files, on the other hand, might include information such as the artist’s name, album, and year.
To know more on how it is used, check this blog from Precisely.
Question #2: What are the different types of metadata?
There are many types of metadata, and they can be used for a wide range of purposes. Despite this, metadata can still be grouped into three basic types: business, technical or operational.
Examples include:
- Descriptive – consists of things such as title, subject and genre, author, and creation date.
- Rights –consists of things such as copyright status, rights holders, or license terms.
- Technical – consists of things such as file types, file sizes, creation dates and times, and compression type. It is often used to manage digital objects and facilitate interoperability.
- Preservation – consists of things such as an item’s position in a hierarchy or sequence and is mainly used for navigation.
- Markup – consists of things such as heading, list, name, date, and paragraph. It is used to facilitate navigation and interoperability.
Question #3: Does it affect SEO?
Yes, metadata affects SEO. Since it contains a description of your website that web crawlers can use to make better sense of what your content is about, it can help search engines recommend your content to people who might find it valuable.
Meta title and meta description are two of the most common metadata types used in web development and SEO. To help users (and search engines) understand the content of the page, the meta title gives a quick overview of what it is about while the meta description provides additional information.
These properties appear on search engine results pages (SERPs) so users can quickly determine whether or not your content has the information they are looking for.
Metadata for a web page, on the other hand, might include information about the language it was written in.
Keep in mind, however, that it is just one of the many things web crawlers look at when determining the relevance of a particular web page or piece of content to a particular set of keywords, so you cannot just stop at getting your meta title and meta description on point. You also need to take a look at things such as:
- The quality of your content
- The appropriateness of the keywords you use
- The number of times you use your keywords with respect to the length of your content
- The overall content structure of your website
- The number of quality backlinks your content has
- The accuracy of your content
- The authority and credibility of your website (and the pages that make it up) in the eyes of search engines
Question #4: Can this be used for online activity tracking?
Yes, metadata can be used for online activity tracking.
Online retailers, for example, use metadata to track your shopping habits along with other details they can use to tailor their offers to your specific preferences and needs. They store information such as your device type, location, demographic data, and purchasing habits.
Internet service providers, governments, or anyone else who has access to large amounts of metadata information, can do something similar as well. They can use the metadata from web pages, emails, and other online sources to monitor your web activity. They collect can, in turn, be used to track threats.