July 07, 2019

Why every blog needs a meta section


Typical blogging tools like Wordpress makes it easy to create single posts. They are ordered chronological and can be commented by other. A nice improvement for this idea is to create an extra page which is called meta. Meta is a single page not located within the normal hierarchy but on top of the blog. The idea of a meta page is to post articles again. Especially articles which have attracted a larger audience and are well written. Let me give a concrete example. Suppose a blog is filled with 30 new postings each month. After one year the total amount of postings is 360. Sure, the reader can click through the entire content but what a typical beginner want's is a recommendation which postings of the blog should be read first. That means, the visitor asks for a curated playlist which contains of 10-20 articles. Or to be more specific, he likes not know the URL to the most important content.
From a perspective of a database a meta page doubles the content. The content in the meta-section is a repetition of the existing information. At the same time, the repetition provides additional value. It explains what is important. This decision is made by providing a limited space. In the meta-section not all 360 postings are referenced but only fraction of them. It is equal to a subjective directory in which a spot is directing towards existing information within the blog.
The idea of restricting the amount of information isn't new. In some discussions about how to improve a weblog, it was recommended to delete older blogposts if they are not relevant. But deleting content results into a loss of information. The better idea is to let the older postings online, also let the postings with a low traffic online but create the mentioned meta page for emphasize the very best content.