Can you change meta description at any time without loosing rankings?
-
I'm wondering if it is possible to change the meta description of a page on your site at any time without it affecting rankings on google?
Is it only changing how my SERP looks? Or could bad things happen to changing your meta description?
Appreciate all opinions on this one, thank you guys!
-
Right. Thanks for the advice again! I will definitely go for custom meta descriptions in the near future.
Cheers
-
Actually i have seen sites thrive with the same description, How ever think of it like this when you search for a product for example say a kettle most results have the word kettle in the description and it is highlighted by Google in the search result so relevant, so if yours is the same through out the site that is not going to happen and the chances are the user will click one that has got the keyword in.
-
Thanks askshopper!
Would having the same meta description through out the site (for a while) be a bad thing? Or could I have it like that for the time being?
I can't change them right now because of some issues with my developers atm.
-
Yes you can change them any time, when the page gets crawled again the description will be updated in search results, try to avoid duplicates & I also recommend putting your keywords in the page meta but at the same time maintaining good quality description for the end user.
-
Great, thanks Matt!
-
Meta descriptions don't affect your rankings in search engines - they just help entice people to click on your results in the search engines - have a look here for further peace of mind - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description
So you can change them at anytime and it won't affect your rankings.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why i my site not ranking
I have been building my website www.ubodo.com ( its a property portal ) I have feeds coming in from nearly 200 estate agents and I have just over 26k properties listed all over the world. I have tried to make the site fast, mobile friendly and followed several SEO tutorials but I am looky If I get 10 new visitors a day !!! I have managed to get 1st page ranking for terms like " Property for sale in Hambye" ( less competitve than " Property for Sale in France " ) Can any one see anything obvious I have done wrong, I feel like there is a switch to turn on the traffic and I cant find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated Barry
On-Page Optimization | | Bazconnolly10 -
How can I write unique and seductive product descriptions about multiple, very similar products?
We are an eCommerce store who sell personalised phone cases, macbook covers, mugs and the like. Our target market is primarily 16-25 and female. We're in the process of redesigning our website www.mrnutcase.com and we desperately need some more enticing product descriptions before the redesign goes live. The problem is that most of our products are exactly the same. For example iPhone 5 case, iPhone 5S Case etc. At the moment our product descriptions are almost the same, but written in a slightly different way. Not only is this dangerous in terms of duplicate content, but it's also extremely boring for the user. With our users being young and female, writing about boring technical specifications isn't going to cut it with the crowd. Obviously, i want each of our pages to rank in Google so I don't want to NoIndex or canonicalize any pages or anything. How can I write unique and enticing product descriptions for very similar products? Would appreciate any ideas! Thanks, Danny
On-Page Optimization | | DannyNutcase0 -
.co.uk ranking in serps and .com ranking on local
Hi im not sure what the best course of action is my client has one site but it has 2 TLD the .co.uk and the .com they wanted all .co.uk redirected to the .com but the .co.uk is ranking in the serps postion 2 and the .com is ranking in local, but is way back in the serps. So i have a bit of a dilemma, by the way it is a local business based in the uk. what should i do?
On-Page Optimization | | juun0 -
To change or not to change site URL structure?
I am learning my way around SEO, having always used professionals for it in the past on previous businesses i have decided to do it myself and learn more about it. Now the dilemma i am up against is i recently changed some of my permalinks on quite a few main pages throughout the site. The site launched in April this year so we're quite new. The problem is since my last change i have not seen any increase...a decrease which in fact hasn't recovered at all. Having now analysed them in more depth and read up more on the whole subject of SEO, (which is endless) i have put together a complete new strategy; with this increased understanding of what i am doing (but by no means conclusive) i want to complete a full overhaul on all SEO (via Wordpress which i use along with YOAST SEO tools), ensuring i have all my keywords, permalinks and descriptions spot on throughout every page, post and picture. I spent a lot of time mapping these out, ensuring there is no Focus keyword duplication, and that the site is relatively flat in terms of its layout. What i am unsure about now is whether changing my permalinks again is a bad thing to do?
On-Page Optimization | | MrCostello
Could it permanently damage my rep going forward?
Should i just focus on my content and keywords/descriptions? I am at a loss as i don't want to do irreparable damage to our reputation. The site is still reasonable easy to manage so changing now is the best time to do it, but if changing the URLs is a waste of time then i may just forget that and just work on the keywords, descriptions and content. Advice is 'oh so welcome' 🙂0 -
Different Categories, Same Meta Description?
I've heard that having duplicate meta descriptions is bad for SEO and can even be the cause of penalties. However, a duplicate meta description would make sense for different categories on many sites. So I'm wondering what the best solution is for a case like this? One of my sites has around 150 topics, and each topic page is exactly the same, aside from including only things that are related to that specific topic. So why would I want to create 150 different meta descriptions? Not only is it time consuming, and nearly impossible to create 150 unique descriptions for the same type of content, but it also serves no purpose for visitors coming from the search engines. A logical approach would be to use the same meta description and just switch out the topics in the description... but then all of those descriptions would be 95% the same - and I imagine Google might see that as spam. So... suggestions?
On-Page Optimization | | JABacchetta0 -
ECommerce Product Meta Descriptions vs. Product Descriptions
Wondering if using on-page product descriptions as the individual product meta descriptions is a best practice for an eCommerce site? Instead of writing two product descriptions (one regular and one meta), I am thinking if the product copy is SEO rich, we'd be good to use just the one for both purposes. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Seems that many companies follow this practice. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | kennyrowe1 -
What is important for page rank?
I have heard quality is the most important factor for page rank but after the 7 Nov 11 PR update I am no longer a believer. The PR on my home page dropped from 4 to 3 and the rest of my inside pages remained the same even though I have added a significant amount of content since the previous update and kept it fresh. Any thoughts on this most recent PR update?
On-Page Optimization | | casper4340