Metadata

The term metadata refers to a set of data that describes and provides information about other data.

In the context of the Web and SEO, metadata is information that describes the content of a Web page, such as title, description, and keywords, and is used by search engines to understand the context and content of a page. Metadata are not visible to users browsing the page, but are encoded in HTML and can be read by search engines and other automated systems.

In the context of a Web page, metadata is placed within HTML tags to communicate information about the page content to search engines and other services: the most common include the meta title, which is the title of a Web page displayed in search results, and the meta description, which is a brief summary of the page content.

Meta data is crucial for SEO as it affects a page’s visibility in search results and its CTR, helping to determine a page’s relevance to a particular search query.