Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are the backbone in various modern Internet of Things (IoT) smart applications ranging from automated control, surveillance, forest fire detection, etc. One of the most important applications is the smart agriculture. The deployment of WSN in agricultural processes can predict crop yield, soil temperature, air quality, water level, crop price, and the appropriate time for market delivery which will help to increase productivity. In this paper, an enhanced metaheuristic algorithm called multi-verse optimizer with overlapping detection phase (DMVO) is introduced for optimizing the area coverage percentage of WSN. The proposed algorithm is tested on many datasets with different criterions and is compared with other algorithms including the original MVO, particle swarm optimization, and flower pollination algorithm. The experimental results are analyzed with one-way ANOVA test. In addition, DMVO is applied to IoT smart agriculture in East Oweinat area in Egypt and compared with Krill Herd algorithm. In addition, the experimental results are analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The experimental results and the statistical analysis prove the prosperity and consistency of the proposed algorithm.