Why Your Content Gets Lost
Metadata explains what platforms—and people—miss.
I know.
I talk about metadata a lot.
And I get why it can feel like one of those words you’re supposed to nod at and move on from—technical, abstract, vaguely “SEO-ish.”
But metadata isn’t a buzzword. It’s a way of seeing your content differently.
Metadata is the information that tells people (and systems) what your content actually is. Not what it looks like. Not how hard you worked on it. But how it should be understood, grouped, found, and used again.
When you start thinking of your content as rich in metadata, something shifts.
You stop seeing a recipe as just a post.
You start seeing it as:
a type of meal
for a specific moment
with a clear purpose
that belongs with other things
That clarity changes how platforms read your work—but more importantly, it changes how people experience it.
So the next time you talk about your content, try using the word metadata.
Not to sound technical.
But to remind yourself that what you’re building isn’t just content. It’s information meant to travel.
When good work is hard to recognize
Owen didn’t call it metadata at first.
He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and before he became a food blogger, he was a teacher—which shows in how he approaches food. His recipes are steady and considered, built around foraging and seasonal ingredients that appear briefly and disappear just as quickly.
Wild greens in early spring.
Mushrooms that only show up for a few weeks.
Dinners shaped by timing, place, and restraint.
His site, Weeknight Field Notes, is for people who want to cook thoughtfully without turning Tuesday night into a project.
Which is why the emails surprised him.
“Do you have a recipe for that lentil thing you shared last month?”
“I swear you posted a soup like this—can you resend the link?”
“I tried to find it but couldn’t.”
At first, Owen thought this was just how the internet works.
Then he realized something uncomfortable.
They weren’t missing his content.
They couldn’t recognize it.
Foraging recipes depend on context—season, location, moment. But once those details slipped out of view, readers remembered the idea of the dish without being able to locate it again.
Owen’s work was thoughtful, tested, and human.
But it wasn’t rich in metadata.
When he started treating his recipes as information—anchored to time, use, and relationship with other dishes—something changed.
Not his voice.
Not his values.
But how his work held together over time.
The misunderstanding about metadata
Metadata sounds technical.
Cold. Administrative. Optional.
Most creators hear the word and think:
SEO cleanup
backend busywork
something to deal with “later”
Owen thought this too. His writing was clear. His recipes were solid. His audience liked him.
What he didn’t see was the gap between:
content that makes sense when you land on it
and content that’s easy to find again
That gap is where metadata lives.
The technical takeaway
Metadata is how you answer your audience’s unspoken questions before they ask them:
What kind of recipe is this?
When should I use it?
Who is it for?
How does it relate to what I’ve already seen?
Platforms rely on those answers.
But so do people.
When metadata is missing, your audience does more work than they should have to.
That’s not a platform problem.
It’s a clarity problem.
Why this is about generosity, not optimization
Here’s the shift Owen had to make:
Metadata isn’t about squeezing more performance out of content.
It’s about reducing friction for the reader.
When he:
tightened recipe titles
made categories consistent
described techniques the same way every time
Something subtle changed.
The emails slowed down.
Not because people stopped caring.
Because they could finally find what they already trusted.
Metadata didn’t make his content louder.
It made it kinder.
Try this (10 minutes)
Pick one piece of content and ask:
Would someone know who this is for in three seconds?
Is it clear when they should use it?
Does it connect clearly to related content?
If the answer is “sort of,” that’s your signal.
Metadata isn’t missing because you’re careless.
It’s missing because no one framed it as part of caring for your audience.
How this fits the bigger system
This is one of the core ideas behind Create Once, Share Everywhere™:
Structure isn’t just about distribution.
It’s about preserving meaning as your content moves.
I break down how metadata works across search, platforms, and emerging tools in more technical detail on the blog, Blueberri Bytes.
→ Read the full technical breakdown on Blueberri Bytes
One clear next step
This week, try describing one piece of content using metadata words, not performance words.
Instead of:
“This post did well”
“This video flopped”
“I need to post more”
Try:
“This recipe is seasonal”
“This is a beginner weeknight dinner”
“This belongs with my foraging content”
“This answers a specific moment”
You don’t need to publish anything new.
Just practice naming what your content is.
That shift alone changes how you plan, group, and reuse what you already have.
And if you want more thinking like this, without jargon or pressure, that’s exactly what Blueberri Pi is for.
Next week, we’ll look at what platforms actually see when creators say “the algorithm changed.”
Most of the time, it didn’t.
If you’re reading this that means I’m neck deep in conducting workshops about structured recipe content… and I love it.
Until next time, keep looking at the engine that’s really powering your content.
Your friend in food,
