The Dublin Core is a relatively up and coming metadata standard that assists with describing a digital document or resource. By providing a set of standard elements that to accurately describe the contents of a webpage, the Dublin Core is a valuable asset for anyone interested in SEO.
However, working with the standard is anything but straight forward. Let’s explore ways to use the Dublin Core standard to further optimize a webpage or website for search engines.
The Dublin Core provides a set of 15 elements and subelements that can be used to describe a resource or document to search engines and third-party services. Each element exists to describe a specific and unique aspect of the resource. The elements are deliberately broad and generic in nature, usable for describing a wide range of resources.
Below is a reference of Dublin Core elements that are most commonly associated with web-based resources and documents.
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource.
<meta name="DC.Contributor" content="Kevin Leary" />
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource.
<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Kevin Leary" />
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource. Recommended format for a date value is YYYY-MM-DD.
<meta name="DC.Date" content="2014-01-31" />
An account of the resource.
<meta name="DC.Description" content="A tutorial and reference manual for using the Dublin Core metadata on HTML websites." />
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource.
<meta name="DC.Format" content="text/html" />
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context.
<meta name="DC.Identifier" content="https://www.kevinleary.net/dublin-core-metadata/" />
A language of the resource.
<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" />
An entity responsible for making the resource available.
<meta name="DC.Publisher" content="kevinleary.net" />
A related resource.
<meta name="DC.Relation" content="https://www.dublincore.org/" />
Information about rights held in and over the resource.
<meta name="DC.Rights" content="Copyright Kevin Leary 2014 - All rights reserved." />
A related resource from which the described resource is derived.
<meta name="DC.Source" content="https://www.kevinleary.net/dublin-core-metadata/" />
The topic of the resource.
<meta name="DC.Subject" content="Dublin Core Metadata" />
A name given to the resource.
<meta name="DC.Title" content="Working With Dublin Core Metadata" />
The nature or genre of the resource.
<meta name="DC.Type" content="web tutorial" />
Dublin Core metadata can be added to HTML documents using <meta>
tags within the <head>
section a document. As a working example, here’s what a set of Dublin Core meta tags could look like for this blog article.
<meta name="DC.Language" content="en">
<meta name="DC.Title" content="Working With Dublin Core Metadata">
<meta name="DC.Description" content="A tutorial and reference manual for using the Dublin Core metadata on HTML websites.">
<meta name="DC.Type" content="web tutorial">
<meta name="DC.Subject" content="Dublin Core Metadata">
<meta name="DC.Source" content="https://www.kevinleary.net/dublin-core-metadata/" />
<meta name="DC.Rights" content="Copyright Kevin Leary 2014 - All rights reserved." />
<meta name="DC.Relation" content="https://www.dublincore.org/" />
<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Kevin Leary">
<meta name="DC.Publisher" content="kevinleary.net">
<meta name="DC.Format" content="text/html">
<meta name="DC.Identifier" content="https://www.kevinleary.net/dublin-core-metadata/" />
<meta name="DC.Date.Created" content="2014-01-25">
<meta name="DC.Date.Lastmodified" content="2014-01-31">
To extend the abilities of the tags, the Dublin Core standard allows subelements to be used for furthuer explaining a specific element property. In the full example above you may notice that I’ve used subelements to extend the Date
element (Date.Created
and Date.Lastmodified
). This ability to extend the details for a given resources makes the Dublin Core standard a powerful way to describe the contents of a document for search and indexing engines.