Good metadata describes your content accurately. It does not provide a formula for AI citations, and search systems can choose different result text.
Titles and descriptions
- Use a specific page title that a customer can understand.
- Keep the description relevant to that page.
- Remove unverified claims, prices and availability.
- Avoid repetitive keyword lists and duplicate boilerplate.
- Check that the visible page fulfils its title and description.
Canonical and indexability
- Use the intended canonical URL and check redirects.
- Review pagination and duplicate variants individually.
- Do not point distinct product or service pages to the homepage by default.
- Check public pages for accidental noindex directives.
- Keep sitemap and internal links consistent with intended public URLs.
Sharing and accessibility
- Preview social title, description and image.
- Use an accessible, relevant image with a working URL.
- Describe informative images accurately; decorative images may need empty alt text.
- Check the page and its important links on mobile.
After a change
Review the proposed change, confirm its facts and check delivery support for your website. After authorising an eligible fix, inspect the delivery record and the separate live-page check. Use your CMS or developer for work the connection cannot deliver.
Review the actual Search Console period before attributing traffic changes to an edit. Google’s snippet guidance: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet
