How unique should meta descriptions be?
-
This is something I've been wondering for a while but can't seem to find any advice on. My website features ~60 different companies, each having their own profile page. When optimizing for SEO, how unique should each page's meta description be? Put another way, can I be penalized if the descriptions are all identical except for the company name I include?
Any thoughts, resources, or best practices are appreciated!
-
Thanks, and I agree with you. The similar descriptions are because I'm not personally setting them each time, so I wanted to provide a template to other users so we at least have something custom for search results pages instead of the default text from the beginning of the post.
-
True.
Also, a good description helps to improve CTR. So, you may not be penalized by using all the same but a word different instead you might not be getting the best CTR possible.Just try to be as much informative as possible and think what would you think as a Google Search User if you see several ranking positions with very, very, very similar descriptions?
Best Luck.
GR. -
It is not a problem that they are all the same
The problem would be if the content inside was exactly the same, there if it would penalize Google
-
I believe the meta description is becoming less and less of a SERP factor (especially since it does not affect rankings directly, and you should write it to improve CTR). You should not be flagged for duplicate content for doing what you described with the meta descriptions in my opinion, just make sure the actual content on each page is unique and not duplicating other pages.
Nick White
SEO Services KC
https://seo-kansas-city.com/
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
-
Meta tag keywords with the same words in them.
I'm updating some older pages and was wondering about potential penalties from having keywords that start with the same phrase. It's a geographic area so there is the "full name" and the abbreviated name. I'd like to have keywords for both. For example: virginia beach, va beach, virginia beach attraction, virginia beach things to do, va beach attraction, va beach things to do, virginia beach dolphins tour, va beach dolphins tour Is that spammy? I understand they don't have the same weight as they used to but I'd like to optimize for them anyway since I'm redoing some things. Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | recoil0 -
Meta tags
What is the best way to create unique meta tags for pages like http://www.gobol.in/brands/a http://www.gobol.in/brands/b http://www.gobol.in/brands/c http://www.gobol.in/brands/d
On-Page Optimization | | Obbserv0 -
Noindex or canonical tag for products which have no unique product description?
I have several ecommerce sites in the same niche and there are a high number of products shared among these sites. I understand that having unique product descriptions for each site may be ideal, but for several reasons this is not an option for the short term. Sales-wise it would be useful to continue products on several sites at the same time. Also it would not be a problem if only the product pages of our main store would show up in the google index. I thought about adding noindex xrobots tag to avoid that product pages are indexed in more than one store to avoid issues with duplicated or thin content or would you implement canonical tag here? What would you suggest?
On-Page Optimization | | lcourse0 -
Meta Title in Google does not match the HTML meta title I have coded in a site
I have a client site that is pulling a meta title that is not in his code. I am using Yoast for the titles and descriptions on this site. Not 100% sure why Google is not listing the title we have in place. Could the code be pulling from somewhere else? Is there a fix for this?
On-Page Optimization | | Bryan_Loconto0 -
Why is SEOMoz telling me that meta descriptions are missing?
We have descriptions using an Ektron CMS on a .NET platform. IT is wondering if using "meta ID" vs "meta name" is the issue? Here is an example of the HTML code: <meta http-equiv="<a class="attribute-value">Content-Language</a>" name="<a class="attribute-value">Language</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">en</a>" /> <meta id="<a class="attribute-value">ctl00_metaTagControl1_metaKeywords</a>" name="<a class="attribute-value">Keywords</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">hunting, fishing, outdoor, sportshooting, rodeo, off-road, hunt, fish, outdoors, community, shotgun, rifle, bass, trout, sportfishing, tarpon, ATV, television</a>">meta> <meta id="<a class="attribute-value">ctl00_metaTagControl1_metaDesc</a>" name="<a class="attribute-value">Description</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Deep-cranking technique lands Starks his second Elite Series victory.</a>">meta> <meta id="<a class="attribute-value">ctl00_metaTagControl1_metaSubject</a>" content="" name="<a class="attribute-value">subject</a>">meta> <meta id="<a class="attribute-value">ctl00_metaTagControl1_metaRating</a>" content="" name="<a class="attribute-value">rating</a>">meta>
On-Page Optimization | | cmoise0 -
Changing url in connection with meta title inconsistency
We run a site, which is a directory type one, where visitors can look for local businesses per city as well (at some point similar to the 'Yelp concept'). Now, we use www.example.com as the homepage, and the www.example.com/city1, where city1 is the capital of our country, is 301 redirected to the homepage, so this is your default setting. When you choose e.g city2, your url changes to www.example.com/city2, and the city value is stored in a cookie. Then, when you leave the session, and return to the site later on, you will see the homepage url, but with your previous choice of city (in case you let cookies be stored). My concern is, that the meta title always contains the chosen city name, so when you return to the website, and you previously used city2, you will now see the homepage url (which normally belongs to city1), but with the meta title of city2 or with any other previously chosen city. Does this mean a problem, and should I always use the correct url, which would be www.example.com/cityX, or this could not cause a problem for me? If it does, would you mind sharing me the exact problems as well? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | Dilbak0 -
Missing meta descriptions on indexed pages, portfolio, tags, author and archive pages. I am using SEO all in one, any advice?
I am having a few problems that I can't seem to work out.....I am fairly new to this and can't seem to work out the following: Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂 1. I am missing alot of meta description tags. I have installed "All in One SEO" but there seems to be no options to add meta descriptions in portfolio posts. I have also written meta descriptions for 'tags' and whilst I can see them in WP they don't seem to be activated. 2. The blog has pages indexed by WP- called Part 2 (/page/2), Part 3 (/page/3) etc. How do I solve this issue of meta descriptions and indexed pages? 3. There is also a page for myself, the author, that has multiple indexes for all the blog posts I have written, and I can't edit these archives to add meta descriptions. This also applies to the month archives for the blog. 4. Also, SEOmoz tells me that I have too many links on my blog page (also indexed) and their consequent tags. This also applies to the author pages (myself ). How do I fix this? Thanks for your help 🙂 Regards Nadia
On-Page Optimization | | PHDAustralia680 -
Why do I need to write meta descriptions?
I work at a marketing firm, and was trying to convince my boss that we need to start writing meta descriptions for all pages on the sites we develop for clients. He asked why this would be necessary since Google automatically pulls a snippet of content, containing the keyword(s) that had been searched, from any page listed in its SERPs. I didn't have an answer for this, and it got me wondering: When does Google actually display the meta descriptions that people write instead of scraped content? And is it really that necessary to write meta descriptions?
On-Page Optimization | | matt-145670