Is it okay to copy and paste on page content into the meta description tag?

[VanguardCommunications]

I have heard conflicting answers to this.   I always figured that it was okay to selectively copy and paste on page content into the meta description tag.....especially if the onpage content is well written.    How can it be duplicate content if it's pulling from the exact same page?

Does anybody have any feedback from a credible source about this?

Thanks.

[benjaminmarcinc]

If you feel that your are explaining the page the best you can in the meta description that go of it. I think that this is one of the most vital tags on the website. It brings people into your website.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Hey Vanguard Communications!

I don't see why doing this would hurt your sites rankings or be deemed as duplicate in any way.

Since SEO is an "experimental" process (which is why you've heard such conflicting answers on this), my best advice would be to give it a try and see how it plays out. Or as EGOL stated, try adding a few extra words if the page content is too short. Or even add a few extra words to make it differ from the page content. Best of luck to you!

[David-Kley]

Think about it like this:

Your meta description is a condensed version of what your page is about, including keywords.
Your opening statement is usually about what your page is about, including keywords.

Sometimes you can modify them a bit to add in additional keywords, or to make them more focused on a given topic. To answer your original question, yes it is fine. It is NOT considered duplicate content.

When Matt Cutts is talking about duplications, he means dont have multiple pages with the same ones. Not to avoid having onpage content the same as meta descriptions.

""The way I think of it is you can either have a unique meta tag description, or you can choose to have no meta tag description, but I wouldn't have duplicate meta tag descriptions," Cutts said."

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2308339/Matt-Cutts-Create-Unique-Meta-Descriptions-for-Your-Most-Important-Pages

[WilliamKammer]

I also do this. The meta description is supposed to have a nice sentence or so that is relevant to the page and makes people click. If the content on your page can't do that, you have a bigger problem than meta descriptions.

[EGOL]

I do this on lots of pages.  LOTS.

Many of my pages have an

title

at the top of the page and a short description beneath it.  That short description is also used as my meta description.  Sometimes I add a few extra words if it is short.  I don't think that this hurts me a bit in the search engines.