Metadata

Metadata is data about data. In other words, it is data that is used to describe another item's content.

The term metadata is often used in the context of Web pages, where it describes page content for a search engine.

Metadata is an important tool for improving a Web page's search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines generally use metadata, along with a combination of other factors, to determine what is on a Web page and how relevant that content is to a given search. This data is included in the the meta tags found in a Web page's HTML or XHTML.

Common metadata used by most search engines includes:

• Description: This meta element describes the type of content found on a Web page. For example, the description for this page tells this search engine that the page contains a definition of the term metadata.
• Title: This provides a title for the content on the page, which is shown by search engines in results. For this page, it is: What is Metadata? - Definition from Techopedia.com.
• Keywords: This provides the search engine with additional keywords that are related to the content that's on the page. Whether search engines still use this data is a matter of debate.