Metadata

Generally defined as “data about data.” Metadata can be human-applied data, such as a title, description, content tags; or machine-applied, like timestamps (date created/updated, etc), unique ID numbers. In the terms above: attribute, value, tag, and slug are all examples of metadata. Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information object. In our case, the “information object” is content.

A taxonomy becomes metadata when the taxonomy terms are used as tags on content. Content tags typically describe what content is about so they can be found (either by humans or machines). So a conceptual article about enterprise solutions using Microsoft Office would be tagged with the product term “Microsoft Office” since that is the product the article is about.

Content type Content classification Attributes Taxonomy Autotagging