MCP server metadata that earns links

MCP server metadata is the information a server gives about itself when a client connects: its name, title, version, description, website and icons, sent in the serverInfo part of the handshake. A server can also publish a server card and an AI catalog, so tools can read the same details over plain HTTP.

Directories build every listing from these fields. Without a description your listing is bare, without a website there's no link back, and without an icon it looks unfinished next to the rest. For SEO and GEO, the fuller listing pages are the ones that rank for "[product] mcp" and the ones AI answers describe accurately.

Set title, description, websiteUrl and icons in serverInfo, alongside the required name and version. The website is the field that earns a link; the description and icon decide how your listing reads.

The MCP TypeScript SDK accepts description, websiteUrl and icons from version 1.32. Keep the description under 100 characters, the server card's limit, and leave out pricing words such as "free", which editorial directories reject.

Our Manufact score went from 68 to 83 once the handshake named our website, description and icon, and the score page gained a followed link to workpods.ai. Before the change, the page's only followed link went to the server endpoint, because the handshake named no website.

Our Manufact score page after the change: 83/100, with a followed link to our site. Checked 11 Nov 2026.

Protocol and tools stayed at 100, and tool documentation stayed at 82; Part 6, on MCP tool descriptions, covers that score. The live page is our Manufact leaderboard entry.

Pass the description, website and icons in the server's implementation info, from one identity object that the server card also reads, so the two can't disagree.

import { McpServer } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/mcp.js'

// The handshake and the server card both read this, so they can't disagree.
export const IDENTITY = {
  registryName: 'ai.workpods/agent-ready-mcp',
  title: 'Agent Ready Website Audit',
  description:
    'SEO and AI search audits of any public web page, with drafted fixes. No account needed.',
  websiteUrl: 'https://workpods.ai/tools/agent-ready',
  icons: [{ src: 'https://workpods.ai/favicon-512.png', mimeType: 'image/png', sizes: ['512x512'] }],
} as const

export function buildServer(version: string): McpServer {
  return new McpServer({
    name: 'agent-ready-by-workpods',
    title: IDENTITY.title,
    version,
    description: IDENTITY.description,
    websiteUrl: IDENTITY.websiteUrl,
    icons: IDENTITY.icons,
  })
}

Then check what a client actually receives:

curl -s https://mcp.example.com/mcp -X POST \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"check","version":"1"}}}' \
  | grep -o '"serverInfo":{[^}]*}'

An MCP server card is a small JSON file, defined in the MCP proposal SEP-2127, that describes your server and how to connect to it. Directories and inspectors read it over HTTP, and an AI catalog at /.well-known/ai-catalog.json on your domain tells them where it is.

{
  "$schema": "https://static.modelcontextprotocol.io/schemas/v1/server-card.schema.json",
  "name": "ai.workpods/agent-ready-mcp",
  "title": "Agent Ready Website Audit",
  "description": "SEO and AI search audits of any public web page, with drafted fixes. No account needed.",
  "websiteUrl": "https://workpods.ai/tools/agent-ready",
  "remotes": [{ "type": "streamable-http", "url": "https://mcp.workpods.ai/mcp" }]
}

Use the same name as your entry in the official MCP Registry, and serve the card with access-control-allow-origin: * so browser-based inspectors can read it. Answer a browser that opens your MCP URL with a short setup page too, since Manufact counted the server card and the setup page as two of its six discoverability checks.

Fix the three handshake fields first, because every directory reads them and they take minutes. Then publish the server card and AI catalog, and ask each quality checker to review your server again.

1. Add description, websiteUrl and icons to the handshake.
2. Serve a server card and list it in /.well-known/ai-catalog.json.
3. Show a setup page when a browser opens your MCP URL.
4. Press "Review again" on Manufact.
5. List where pages rank and link back; see the MCP marketplace comparison.

The whole series is ranked in MCP servers for SEO and GEO. Agent Ready checks a domain for an AI catalog and server cards, and we set this up for clients as part of our agent platform listing work.