Duplicate meta descriptions

[Andy-Halliday]

Hi All

Does having quite a few Duplicate meta descriptions hurt SEO. I am worried that I have too many and thinking this could be the reason for my recent drop in search visibility.

Thanks in Advance.

Andy

[Andy-Halliday]

thanks for your responses and clearing this up.

[DonnaDuncan]

Thanks Kevin!

[KevinBudzynski]

Donna--Good point. I revised my previous answer to include that meta descriptions as a display factor that could influence ctr's but not rankings. Meta KW/Descriptions do not influence rankings--instead can help to increase click through's. By including a good unique one increases chances that Google will use it and, more times than not, will have a higher ctr than the auto generated one if the meta description is not included. Great clarification.

[DonnaDuncan]

Hi Andy,

Assuming you mean rankings when you say visibility, having too many meta descriptions won't have any effect because Google doesn't take them into account when ranking web pages.

That said, I've found when there are multiple meta description tags on a page, Google tends to use the first one it encounters. When there are none, it selects when it deems to be relevant from the page and displays that.

Studies have shown that using your primary keyword phrase and being different or helpful in your meta description helps increase click-thru rates. Inclusion of your primary keyword phrase reinforces the relevance of the search result and makes the search result stand out (because search terms are highlighted in bold). Being different or helpful gives the searcher what he or she wants - the solution to a problem or to be entertained.

[KevinBudzynski]

As you probably know, all meta descriptions should be unique. Will a couple hurt? probably not but I advise against it as a display factor. Furthermore, some people will actually eliminate any duplicates meta descriptions and let Google auto-create one. Please see Matt Cutt's video on the topic.