For those who know what content is required and want a simple cut 'n' paste template the previous page should suffice. This page exaplains more about each metadata element.
Contents |
Title
The most important tag, so important we have a whole page dedicated to it.
Description
The description allows the user to decide if the web page is relevant for his or her needs. It is typically displayed in a list of search results. As search engines have different criteria for displaying search results, it is important to ensure that the description is kept short (maximum of 25 words) and that the key message and important keywords appear first.
So an introductory document to RIDDOR might use:
<meta name="description" content="RIDDOR: The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995" />
Think about what will catch a users eye when scanning a list of search results on Google.
Keywords
These are natural language keywords and should accurately represent the content of the file. They should include synonyms, acronyms where appropriate and broader terms.
There is no limit to the size of this metadata element, but a maximum of 25 keywords should be sufficient. Keep keywords in lower case for the sake of consistency. Keywords are coma separated.
<meta name="description" content="health and safety at work act, occupational health, legislation, regulations, statutory instruments" />
eGov Metadata
UK Government interoperability requires that we use a suite of additional metadata elements. The elements HSE uses are listed below.
DC.title
Use the same value as listed for the main title element.
DC.creator
This records the Directorate and Unit responsible for the content. It is recorded in preference to the author’s name as it is more likely that we will be able to trace the Unit rather than the author who may have moved on, when it is time to review the document. However the author’s name is a useful addition if this is available. The data should be recorded in this format:
<meta name="DC.creator" content="CD, CDS1, Middlemas, P" />
DC.subject
DC.subject uses the electronic Government Metadata Standards Intergrated Public Sector Vocabulary (eGMS.IPSV) which has a fixed vocabulary. You must therefore only use terms that are in the list of allowed terms. Use the IPSV online viewer to pick terms. Note: terms are semi-colon separated.
<meta name="DC.subject" scheme="eGMS.IPSV" content="Health and safety at work; Health and safety inspections; Health and safety risk assessment; Health and safety training" />
DC.date.issued
This is the date the document was first made publically available. So if a document was published on a test site for one month prior to release, it is the date the document was published and made availabel to the public that should be used.
All DC.date values are in W3C date time format (W3CDTF) that is: YYYY-MM-DD
<meta name="DC.date.issued" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" content="2010-01-01" />
DC.date.modified
Date the document weas last edited. So if you edit a document, change this value.
<meta name="DC.date.modified" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" content="2012-05-16" />
DC.disposal.review
When the document should be reviewed. At this point the author should consider what to do with it, edit, revise or leave as is and simply change the review date.
<meta name="DC.disposal.review" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" content="2011-12-31" />
eGMS.accessibility
This states the level of compliance with the web content accessibility guidelines. We aim to achieve all priority level one and two targets. If we do achieve them we are entitled to use the following code.
<meta name="eGMS.accessibility" scheme="eGMS.WCAG20" content="Double-A" />
DC.identifier
If HTML use the document's address. If a book use the ISBN.
<meta name="DC.identifier" scheme="DCTERMS.URI" content="http://www.hse.gov.uk/path/file.htm" />
or
<meta name="DC.identifier" scheme="ISBN" content="9780717661794" />
DC.publisher
List the publishing department, usually us.
<meta name="DC.publisher" content="Health and Safety Executive" />
DC.language
The language the document is published in, so will appear as:
<meta name="DC.language" scheme="DCTERMS.ISO639-2" content="Eng" />
or
<meta name="DC.language" scheme="DCTERMS.ISO639-2" content="cym" />
DC.coverage
This denotes the geograsphical coverage the content is meant to realte to. In most cases this will be Britain. Occassionally different valuse such as 'Scotland' may apply.
<meta name="DC.coverage" content="Britain" />
DC.type
This is the type of content and another fixed vocabulary. Acceptable terms include: eg: Agenda, Annual report, Job advertisement, Press release or Website facility.
<meta name="DC.type" scheme="eGMS.TES" content="Website facility" />
See the following for a full list for acceptable terms:
Any further queries about HSE's use of metadata please contact paul.middlemas@hse.gsi.gov.uk