Uncle Arthur has a big fat suggestion for you! Read through your website traffic statistics to tell what the metadata, supplemental data, can teach you. Why? The Universe is waiting - and because I said so - and because it contains a lot of helpful information like your visitors’ IP address, geographic location, what browser language, what are their domain extensions (.edu, .gov, .mil), their connection speeds, which operating system they use, the keyword or phrase searched, the referring URL and the screen resolution.

Now let’s think a minute here - just ask “how can this help me?”

The IP address, or Internet protocol address, gives the specific internet service company the visitor uses. If the visitor works with an Internet provider then the web page will show the speed of the connection - if working with a specific company, then the website will show company’s name and logo.

The geographical location tells about the approximate address of the visitor. With this information, the server can search and display information that is specific for the people of that location. Information like climate, temperature, local happenings, and time for accurate display.

Web pages may be written in different languages. By knowing the browser language you can help a visitor with a web page that is easier to understand with different language sections and more international symbols in the icons, buttons and titles.

Many organizations and various sectors of the web have different domain extensions. A website with a .gov extension means that its a government website and a website with .edu extension refers to an educational organization. This means your content could be customized to target or deflect a sector’s ease of use.

Internet connection speeds may enlighten your planning on file size and downloads speed. There can be different resolution versions of a particular file or feed so that if the speed is low then the lowest resolution will be downloaded.

Operating systems have different requirements and their functionality varies. Some websites provide downloadable software and updates which will not be compatible with all kinds of operating systems. These limitations can be
determined without interrupting the user.

Search keywords and phrases can be utilized to apply search engine optimization techniques to your website to improve relevancy. The linking of data to a specific keyword, which is displayed automatically, makes the visitor feel that his query was dealt with effectively.

Knowing the referring URL helps the website owner to understand traffic patterns as well as to compare data with that of the previous page. This can help you improve your webpage’s competitiveness with the referring sites - if that is a desired outcome.

Remember that if a visitor is surfing the internet with a hand held device or mobile, the content of the website is cropped to fit the screen size and resolution of the device. If the amount of data that is viewed on a normal monitor is displayed over the hand held device, the images would be overlapped and illegible.

So now you should say, “Thank you Uncle Arthur for your wisdom and encouragement.”

The future of the Universe may be an unknown, but try anyway.
Uncle Arthur Browning