Metadata: What and Why?

It seems, these days, that we can hardly go a workday without discussing “data”. As technology progresses and Big Data takes over, the IoT (Internet of Things) gives us access to an endless repository of data points to analyze nearly every aspect of the world around us. There is much to be said about data and its role in effective organizational change. After all, our approach to providing effective learning strategies would be for naught without data-driven decision-making; the scientific method is predicated upon the accurate collection, representation, and interpretation of data.

For now, though, let’s talk about metadata.

Metadata is, at a very high level, data about data. In a digital context, metadata is the primary method by which users are able to locate data within a dataset. For example, say there is a file on your computer that contains a photo of your dog. The data associated with that photo describe how each pixel must be laid out to display the image as it was captured. The metadata associated with the image are the datapoints users can see and search: file name, type, size, resolution, modifications, authors, etc. The practice of “tagging” images and content on our home computers allows us to easily sift through our own archives to find the right files. It also sets a precedent for the application of metadata tagging in environments many orders of magnitude larger than home PCs and laptops.

While you may not notice it, website metadata can have a powerful influence on what users, like us, are able to see on the Internet. The correct application of metadata best practices in a commercial setting is what separates visible websites from invisible websites. Search engines like Google use metadata to better understand and categorize your website, and improper metadata can have a detrimental impact on whether your pages rank for relevant search results. Thus, metadata has huge implications for SEO.