HTML Help: Dublin Core META Tags

The Dublin Core META Tags are a secondary meta tag set created by the Dublin Core Meta data Initiative (DCMI). DCMI is an organization dedicated to promoting the adoption of meta data standards using specialized vocabularies that enable more intelligent information discovery systems.

Got it?

What that basically means is that the DCMI created their own meta tags to better catalog specialized web content. Here's an example of a Dublin core meta tag:

<meta name="dc:title" content="Museum of 6th Century Artwork" />

Properly used, the Dublin Core meta tags require the use of standardized content identifiers from a specialized control vocabulary, which is a predefined list of keywords and descriptions maintained by a recognized standards organizations from different fields.

For example, the dc:subject meta tag normally contains categories selected from the U.S. Library of Congress Subject Headings. Contrast that with regular keyword meta tag content, which is often an ad hoc, free-flowing list of terms written by marketing specialists or do-it-yourself webmasters with the intent of optimizing page rankings at search engines, rather than accurately describing page content.

Because Dublin Core meta data content is to conform to recognized standards, it’s supposed to be much more reliable for cataloging than regular meta tag data. It’s also harder for the average webmaster to use because it requires an in-depth knowledge of the appropriate control vocabulary and how it relates to your content.

As a result, developing Dublin Core meta data is usually a job for archivists, librarians, and other content specialists. It should not be used willy-nilly for search engine optimization because that's not what it was designed for.

Even so, the Dublin core meta tags have been used and abused by pseudo-search engine experts for over a decade now. Because of this abuse, all real search engine experts agree they are totally ignored by search engines, with perhaps the exception of highly specialized search engines.

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