How unique should a meta description be?
-
I'm working on a large website (circa 25k pages) that presently just replicates each page title as a meta description. I'm thinking of doing a 'find and replace' in the database so I change:
to
where the preceeding and following text would be the same in each case eg
Is this unique enough? Obviously the individual keyword would make it technically unique each time....and manually changing them would take the rest of my life
-
Thanks for your response BlueCorona!
The pages concerned are for products and the 'wraparound' text regards free delivery and next day delivery - this is relevant to all the pages and also helpful to tempt the user to click as it's pretty much the best deal in the country. Would you still say that is detrimental?
Individual meta descriptions over time... we have 25,000 products and add / remove many products on a daily basis so I don't think it's really a realistic option.
-
The most important thing to remember is to make the meta description relevant to the specific content on the page, since the point is for the user to be able to see it in search results and decide whether the page's content will provide the answer for their query. So unfortunately, using a templated meta description may be detrimental (though it would be a lot easier when doing a find + replace sequence!). Your best bet is to, over time, write individual meta descriptions that serve as an explanation for the content on the page. Good luck!
-
Thanks Marisa - my changes are certainly customer-based (definite statements about free delivery and next day delivery)
-
"If there is one different word in each description, that is presumably enough to stop them being seen as duplicates?"
Yes, if there's only one character different, they won't be seen as duplicates, at least by machines/bots.
"Also, I was intrigued that you said "Google doesn't officially use meta descriptions" - is there some doubt over this? I thought they'd confirmed it themselves?"
It's just that Google doesn't reveal exactly what they use in their algorithm to determine ranking, so its up to us to figure it out as best we can with observation and experimentation. Sometimes they will confirm or deny using a specific factor, but it's still up to the individual to choose to take that at face value or not.
"I think the choice I have to make is, is it better to have 100% unique descriptions that are too short (keyword only, as at present), or much less unique ones that are 130+ characters. I guess the latter wins."
Probably the latter, but in the case of meta descriptions, I would make that decision based to what is best for the user/customer rather than what we'd speculate Google would want.
-
Thanks Marisa, pretty much as I was thinking (hoping!)
If there is one different word in each description, that is presumably enough to stop them being seen as duplicates?
Also, I was intrigued that you said "Google doesn't officially use meta descriptions" - is there some doubt over this? I thought they'd confirmed it themselves?
I think the choice I have to make is, is it better to have 100% unique descriptions that are too short (keyword only, as at present), or much less unique ones that are 130+ characters. I guess the latter wins.
-
Having duplicate meta keywords will trigger red flags in the Moz tools and other site quality tools, but only because it's a potential user quality issue. Google doesn't officially use meta descriptions as a ranking factor, so as long as the meta descriptions are appropriate and as best as they can be for what's on the specific page, it doesn't matter how different they are from each other page-to-page. Just keep in mind that this is what shows up in the SERPS, so make them interesting enough to make a user want to click your page over the ones surrounding it.
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
-
Can we change Title and/or Descriptions Dynamically Based on Search Query
If I recall we used to be able to change our title attributes tag dynamically based on the search query but not sure if it's possible now or if it makes sense to do so. Thoughts? Rosemary
On-Page Optimization | | RosemaryB1 -
Call to Actions in Meta Descriptions
Does it help your SEO if you have “Get it only at _______”. I know call to actions in general help when you search organically. Does it help to have your brand name/business name in the meta description?
On-Page Optimization | | sderuyter0 -
Keywords on Title Tag and Meta Description?
I have question regarding the use of keywords on title tag and meta description. I will take my website as example... Title Tag: Web Design Company & Digital Marketing Agency in Jakarta Meta Description: Coriate is a full-service website design & Internet marketing firm in Indonesia. We offer the best web solutions and SEO service in the industry. My questions: Is it good? Because I followed Blue Fountain Media. They don't use same keyword on title tag and meta description. You can see on title tag I use "web design" while on meta description I use "website design". Or should I use "web design" on meta description too? Blue Fountain Media doesn't use their company name on title tag. But when I search "Blue Fountain Media" on Google, it only showed their company name. How? Their title tag was "Website Design Company & Digital Marketing Agency in NYC | BFM". Is it necessary to use H1? Because as you can see on my company website Coriate there's no H1.
On-Page Optimization | | Japracool0 -
Product Descriptions & SEO
I got another small question for my price comparison website that I run 🙂 An example product from my site, to which this question relates http://goo.gl/XDTUNs I have about 600 products which I track, and the product description I have for each is as follows; Paragraph 1 - Standard copy which is contained on all products, only the product name / keyword is changed "Easily compare prices below on a XXX" Paragraph 2 = Blatant, 100% copy of the product description from Amazon Paragraph 3 - Standard copy which is contained on all products, only the product name / keyword is changed "Always read your chosen stores product description before buying your XXX" Firstly, I am now on a mission to create unique descriptions instead of the Amazon ones I foolishly copied. My question is, are the standard paragraph 1 and 3 which are in all my product ok? Or should this be avoided? Should my unique description be paragraph 1, or can it remain in the middle? The reason for the three separate paragraphs was so I could mention to keyword 3 times, which is what is suggested on the Moz page grader. Thanks so much!
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
A Lot of Duplicate Meta Descriptions
Hi Everyone Its polesandblinds.com newbie here again, I've Just been in Webmaster tools and see my site has: 278 Duplicate Meta Descriptions 13 Long Meta Descriptions 4 Short Meta Descriptions 304 Duplicate Title Tags We are Using Magento version. 1.6.0.0, It seems that our description content which is unique per page (200 to 300 words) is somehow getting put into the meta description, which I confirmed when I viewed the source code, however its not showing in the meta description boxes in magento. I would say its been like this since the re-launch of the site in December 2012. example page http://www.polesandblinds.com/curtain-tracks/ view-source:http://www.polesandblinds.com/curtain-tracks/ My BIG worry is how Google views this and what effects it may have or had on a site. My site has taken quite a big hit on rankings since the Google updates. I'm really looking forward to your responses good or bad. Many Thanks Jonathan
On-Page Optimization | | JonnytheB0 -
How to mass change Title and Description of a website
Hey , I recently landed a client and his website has a lot of pages. After running a diagnostics in SEOmoz it seems like a lot of them dont have titles and descriptions. Also the ones that have titles and descriptions are not well optimized. I want to change/create titles and descriptions of this website but the problem is it has got 1000s of pages. So I was wondering is there an automated way of doing this? Thanks a lot in advance. Regards
On-Page Optimization | | MerilynL0 -
On-Page SEO Priorities: Title's, Anchor Text or Meta data?
**Any suggestions for prioritized on-page SEO work? Relative weights of importance? ** **What is most important from highest to lowest? ** MetaTag Descriptions? Titles? Anchor Text? Alt Text - for images? Anything else? We might not be able to do everything at once like I desire ......but I do feel we should at least get the ball moving in the right direction. I am looking for ideas or suggestions on what to prioritize for a little bit of on-page SEO work on our website. I personally feel that SEO is pretty important but I am a novice. I have been reading this site the past week and want to convince my webpage guy that on-page SEO is important and that we should at least do a few things and gradually get the work done. Rightfully so our #1 priority is to redesign our landing pages (they are bad) . I also think we should do a little On-Page work concurently. (Lack of on-page SEO is also preventiing me from successfully submitting and being accepted by Dmoz, Yahoo, BOW etc) He is mainly a back engine guy and does a very good job with that. If I were to TELL him to do a few prioritized on-page SEO things what would you suggest? He did do something on the home page at my suggestion but that is all to this point. We have over 400 pages indexed with very little on-page SEO on them. Thank you, UtahTiger
On-Page Optimization | | Boodreaux0 -
Unique Product Descriptions Vs. Speedy Launch
We are close to launching a new property and are also in the process of writing completely unique product descriptions for every product. This will continue to take a lot of time. We are debating the following two options: A. Launch soon with about 10-15% of descriptions being very unique and the rest being standard (mostly manufacture supplied). Then continue to update product content as we complete new fresh descriptions. B. Wait to launch until everything is unique. This will probably set us back 2 Months. We of course would like to go live sooner than later, but don't want to jeopardize anything as it pertains to rankings. The fear internally with launching now is that product pages get crawled, but don't make our best 1st impression with the engines. The counter argument is that it doesn't matter much, pages will get crawled again, and the fresh new content will be considered. Any inputs on this? Is '1st impression' with Google key, or is there no harm in launching and updating. Everything else is very sound -- architecture, on-site optimization, usability/crawlability etc. It's just the matter of the unique vs. generic product page content. Many thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | SEOPA0