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SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)ARTICLES
METADATA IS ESSENTIAL WEB WRITING SKILL
METADATA
IS ESSENTIAL WEB WRITING SKILL: PART 1
By Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com
Metadata is one of the most misunderstood aspects
of content management and website design. Editors
and writers tend to look at it as a technical issue.
Technical people look for a software solution. Both
are wrong. Metadata is a fundamental skill that
web writers and editors must acquire.
Metadata is the: who, what, where, when and how,
of your content. It is that 30 second elevator description.
Metadata may include: heading/title, summary/description,
author name, date of publication, geographic classification,
subject classification, keywords.
Metadata gives your content context. Content that
does not have effective metadata is not web content.
It is sloppy, next-to-useless print content that
has been unprofessionally published on the Web.
If you don't have time to publish professional metadata
for your content, you shouldn't be allowed to publish
anything on a website.
Many writers and editors are technophobes. The story
goes that Woody Allen invites a friend around for
dinner every time his typewriter ribbon needs replacing.
I know many highly intelligent writers who go blank
and freeze up whenever faced with any sort of technical
problem. Writers have a real love-hate relationship
with computers; they love them when they work, they
hate them when they don't.
When writers and editors hear the word 'metadata,'
they run for cover. Metadata sounds really technical.
It definitely sounds like it belongs in the bag
of tricks with servers and dynamic HTML. Every time
I use the word 'metadata,' I see writers eyes glaze.
Wake up! This is meant for you. Don't nod off! This
is really important stuff.
Metadata may well be the difference between web
content that succeeds or fails. You quite simply
cannot call yourself a web writer unless you can
write quality metadata. Anyway, much of what is
called metadata, you do already (headings, summaries,
etc.). You just don't call it metadata.
Metadata is what scan readers want. Within a matter
of seconds, people scan a page to see if it's right
for them. Scan readers love metadata. It quickly
gives them context for the page they are on. It
helps them make the decision whether to read on
or hit the Back button. If you don't have good metadata,
lots more people will be hitting the Back button.
Whenever I hear technical people talk about a software
solution to metadata, I want to scream. (Well, maybe
not scream, but I do get annoyed.) Technical people
can be absolutely brilliant when it comes to technical
things. But like writers not having a clue about
computers, techies very often don't have a clue
about content. The problem is that many techies
think they understand content. That's when it gets
dangerous.
Some techies look at content and see a big pile
of words. The objective is to put metadata on this
pile of words as quickly and cheaply as possible
using clever software. If you want a quality result,
this is definitely not how to do it. If you want
a cheap and nasty result that is often worse-than-useless,
sure, take this approach.
The word processor is a useful tool. But I know
of few writers who would trust a word processor
to check spelling and grammar. Good writers take
responsibility for their spelling and grammar. Good
web writers take responsibility for their metadata.
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