Carlijn is misschien klein van stuk, ze denkt graag groot. Je kunt haar geen groter plezier doen dan het begeleiden van strategische total brand experience-projecten aan haar toe te vertrouwen. Als Head of Team zet ze intern graag mensen in hun kracht: ze is een echt mensenmens en heeft een antenne voor ontwikkelkansen. Eigenschappen die heel goed van pas komen in haar rol bij Zuiderlicht. Met een master Communicatie & Beïnvloeding (Radboud Universiteit) op zak weet ze niet alleen organisatorisch alles in goede banen te leiden maar is ze ook inhoudelijk sparringpartner voor opdrachtgevers. In haar vrije tijd reist ze graag de wereld rond.
Metadata. Why you need it and how to write it.
Length
3 min. readtime
Date
30 September 2025
Alongside design, content and 500,000 lines of code, there are countless small elements that contribute to a successful website. Metadata is one of them. The meta title and description may not be directly visible on the site, but they play an important role in your SEO. And therefore in the battle for clicks from potential visitors. How to you write the best metadata? Here’s a quick guide.
The Importance of Metadata
Don’t be discouraged by the fact that metadata no longer directly influences your page rankings. It still contributes to your SEO strategy. Even if you’re not on top in search results, the right text can make a difference for both search engines like Google and your audience. If your meta descriptions generate visits to your site, this boosts your click-through rate (CTR). And that increase, in turn, improves your site’s ranking factor in search results.
Metadata = information about information. In the case of websites, metadata describes the content of the page.
Meta Title and Meta Description
The meta title is often the first piece of information external parties pull from your site. It’s not just the title in the visitor’s browser window, but also the headline search engines display in snippets, and the headline social media platforms show when sharing the page link. The meta description is a summary of the page content. These texts should entice the user enough to click through to the page.
Alt Tags
Search engines like Google can’t interpret the content of images. An alt tag (or alt text) explains what an image is about. This helps search engines assess relevance, which can improve your ranking. It can also help you perform better in Google Image search results – essential if you sell design products and have lots of visual content. Finally, alt tags are valuable for people with visual impairments.
How to Write Good Metadata
Even though they’re just a few small fields, doing it properly takes more time than you might think. Each detail is an opportunity to make a difference with the right wording.
Tips for Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions
- Write unique and appealing metadata for each page.
- Keep it real! The description should honestly reflect the page content.
- Include the most relevant keywords, but sparingly, so the readability doesn’t suffer. Put the main keyword at the start of the title.
- Make the meta title concrete and active, for example by using ‘how’, ‘what’ or ‘why’.
- Address the reader directly where possible.
- Include your brand or website name in the meta title – great for branding. If it doesn’t fit naturally, add it at the end.
- The length of meta descriptions displayed varies by search engine and device, and search engines change this regularly. So always make sure the most important information is in the first 120 characters.
Tips for Alt Tags
- Be specific. Consider both the subject of the image and its context.
- Don’t start with ‘a photo of…’ or ‘an illustration of…’. The fact that it’s an image is clear from the code. Get straight to the description.
- Keywords are fine if relevant to the image, but use them sparingly. Don’t overload one alt text or use the same keyword for all images on a page.
- Keep the length to a maximum of 125 characters.
Auto-Generate or Write Yourself?
If you don’t enter metadata, the search engine will generate the snippet information itself, often using the first lines of your intro. But these aren’t necessarily comprehensive or persuasive. CMS systems can now auto-fill metadata too. Time-saving? Yes. Optimal result? Not really. It’s clear that automated scripts make different choices than a human writer or online marketer. So we always recommend filling in metadata manually, or at least, refine the auto-generated text.
