Dublin Core Metadata Element Set and Schema – How to Use It

The Dublin Core Metadata is the upcoming standard that helps with describing digital documents and resources. By offering certain standard elements to describe the contents of the webpage accurately, Dublin Core is a valuable asset for anybody interested in Search Engine Optimization. But, working with this standard is not very straightforward. Let us explore different ways of using the Dublin Core Metadata standard to optimize the website or webpage for search engines.

Some points about Properties and Elements of Dublin Core Metadata

The Dublin Core gives a set of over 15 elements or sub-elements that are used for describing the resource and document to the search engines or third-party services. Every element exists in describing the unique and specific aspect of this resource. These elements are highly generic and broad in nature and usable for describing a wide variety of resources. This Dublin Core Metadata Set is the most widely and simplest used schema. Developed originally for describing web resources, the Dublin Core is used for describing various digital and physical resources.

The Dublin Core comprises over 15 “core” meta-data elements; while the “qualified” Dublin Core standard set includes the additional metadata elements that provide greater granularity and specificity. Made in the Dublin Core set are the definitions of every metadata element –such as native content standard –it states what information must be recorded how and where.  Linked with many data elements are the data value standards like DCMI Type Vocabulary & ISO 639 language codes and more. You can get more information on the Dublin Core Metadata website.

What’s Dublin Core?

The Dublin Core metadata set elements are used for supplementing the current methods for indexing and searching the Web-based metadata, irrespective of whether this corresponding resource is the electronic document or a “real” physical object.

• The Dublin Core metadata gives card catalog definitions to define the properties of the objects for the Web-based resource systems.
• Dublin Core Element Set was the first metadata set deliverable out from DCMI was IETF RFC 2413. It provides the semantic vocabulary to describe “core” information properties, like “Description” & “Creator” & “Date.”

People do not realize that search engines do not read websites in the way humans do. Whereas human readers may easily understand the context of the web element at one glance, but search engines require extra information to know what it is all about. What exactly is the extra information? It is something called metadata or data about data. There’re a lot of standards (schemas) for writing structured metadata and the highly recognized ones are the Dublin Core and the Schema Markup.

You may have heard about the Schema Markup provided and how it has been popularized by Google. However, do you know Dublin Core is around for a long time now and is also endorsed and used by well-established organizations? There’re a few arguments on which is good for SEO so let us see both of them and know it.

What is Schema?

The schema provides the collection of certain metadata schemas, which are used by webmasters to mark up HTML web pages and ensure they’re understandable by major search engines today. The schemas will also, like the Dublin Core, get used for structured interoperability purposes. The comprises microdata set terms, types as well as properties. The simplicity of the microdata can be bolstered by the higher support for the combined usage of the multiple metadata schemas.

The Dublin Core

The Dublin Core can be used over both the computer domains and the human languages. It isn’t limited by the business type and model. Therefore, the original purposes were achieved. The challenge of using the Dublin Core is its vocabulary is restricted, and cataloging rules aren’t detailed. The problem can be remedied, but, by different qualifiers that narrow down the meaning or improve the semantic precision. For instance, the value encoding schemes might specify that the value is the controlled vocabulary item or uses a standardized formatting system.

The web resources described by the Dublin Core include images, video clips, web pages, text, and physical objects such as manuscripts, books, artwork, and CDs. Actually, every value in the Dublin Core corresponds to a physical, conceptual, or digital entity of a certain kind. For such reason, it is preferred for use with physical collections.

Schema Usage

After the exponential growth, Schema.org metadata is prevalent all across the Web. Search engine optimization performance is a hallmark of the schema initiated by the search engines and supported by these same parties continually. The schema is good in displaying the database-generated sites rightly and in treating each data type appropriately like logos, thumbnails, or product descriptions. The website elements will be tagged easily, quickly, and rightly.

Future of the Dublin Core Metadata Element

Although conceived from the start as the general metadata schema or hailing from the open initiative, the Dublin Core isn’t any favorite of the biggest and present-day engines. This being said. Nevertheless, it is used for SEO adequately. As the Web history unfolds, lots of “forecasters” expect that Dublin Core will update to the newer metadata schema as well as join this open data movement. This can be that the Dublin Core can morph into a limited role as the search-engine-based Schema.org advances. It isn’t clear that the Dublin Core is “on the way out,” but the “division of labor” of both these metadata systems might lie in the near future.

Future of Dublin Core Metadata Schema

The Schema continues in improving the SEO capabilities and doesn’t seem likely anybody can catch them on this score in the near future. With this promised support of major search engines & new schemas added periodically, the future looks very bright for the Schema. The use of Schema metadata structures gets rid of the need for multiple and trade-off-based markup schemes. It betokens fast future growth for the new metadata provider. Being noted is Schema to RDF mapping is accessible, and data entry validity is tested easily by Google Structured Data Tool, Bing Markup Validator, and Yandex Microformat Validator.