The impact of metadata implementationon webpage visibility in search engine results (Part II)

This paper discusses the impact of metadata implementation in a webpage on its visibility performance in a search engine results list. Influential internal and external factors of metadata implementation were identified. How these factors affect webpage visibility in a search engine results list was examined in an experimental study. Findings suggest that metadata is a good mechanism to improve webpage visibility, the metadata subject field plays a more important role than any other metadata field and keywords extracted from the webpage itself, particularly title or full-text, are most effective. To maximize the effects, these keywords should come from both title and full-text. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.