Page Metadata
While similar to post metadata, page metadata specifically represents information relevant to the page and is used in search engine results and social media sharing. Content should be unique to each page.
General Metadata
Meta Description
Around 115 characters.
The page meta description represents the blurb of text that will appear when search engines return that particular page as a search result. Describe the purpose of the page, including (in natural language) any keywords that might be of interest to a user searching for specific information. A good practice is to fill out the keyword field first, then use this data to craft the meta description.
Keywords
Comma separated. No spaces. Use hyphens (-) for multi-word phrases.
While keywords are no longer used in determining search engine results, filling out this section is still recommended for the organization of ideas when creating the meta description.
Social Page Metadata
Social metadata for pages is displayed when the specific page is shared via social media.
Facebook Title
60-90 characters.
Facebook Description
Best practice: around 200 characters, but technically unlimited.
Facebook Image
Recommended: 1200px x 630px for best display on high resolution devices. 600px x 315px minimum.
Example:
Twitter Title
70 characters maximum
Twitter Description
Around 200 characters.
A concise description of content appropriate for display on Twitter. Avoid re-using the title.
Twitter Image
Recommended: 1500px x 844px
A unique image representing content of the page.
Example:
Head Scripts & Footer Scripts
Both the Head Scripts and Footer Scripts areas can be safely ignored. These are used only in special cases, usually with custom code from a developer.
Social Metadata Validation Tools
Both Facebook and Twitter supply validation tools useful for viewing previews of how metadata will appear when shared. Keep in mind that these tools will not work for development sites.
Facebook:
Use this tool by pasting in the appropriate URL to preview metadata for. If the page has not been shared via Facebook before, the tool will prompt to 'Fetch new information'. Images may not be immediately available - refresh the page in a few seconds to view the preview with image included. It is also important to note that Facebook stores a copy of this data, which it will then use to display content when shared. Facebook will occasionally look for new information from the source URL, but to immediately refresh this content, use the 'Scrape Again' button to expedite the process.
Twitter:
Similar to Facebook's debugger tool, but requires a logged in account to use. Twitter does not use the same mechanism for scraping and saving data, so this content should always reflect the most up to date metadata for the source.