Unit 05 · lesson

Metadata and Link Quality

A generated page has more responsibilities than visible body content.

The document <head> and link text affect usability, sharing, search, and maintainability.

Page title

Your shared layout should produce a useful <title>.

A common pattern combines page and site identity.

Example concept:

<title>{{ page.title }} | {{ site.title }}</title>

Choose a pattern that avoids nonsense such as Home | My Portfolio | My Portfolio.

A page description can become metadata used by search/social tools or simply document intent.

Do not generate empty metadata tags because every page is missing the value.

Use a deliberate fallback or require the field.

Weak:

<a href="...">click here</a>

Stronger:

<a href="...">View the line-follower project</a>

The link should make sense in context and preferably when scanned among other links.

Check internal links after permalink changes.

A successful Jekyll build does not necessarily prove every referenced path exists unless you run an additional link checker or inspect them.

Audit:

Pick one generated page and explain how metadata values traveled from source/front matter/configuration into the final <head>.