I have noticed in my google webmaster tools that I hav 37 pages of
duplicate meta tag descriptions. Is this a problem and if so should I
just delete the meta tag descriptions within these pages.

Thanks,

Andrew

Each page should have a meta description that is appropriate for that
specific page.  This means that every page should have its own
description, even if the wording overlaps.

The meta description should provide a concise summary/indication of
the page purpose/content.

Robbo

On Jan 10, 5:20 pm, apr7777 wrote:

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to our community!  I'm glad to hear you're using Webmaster
Tools - we strongly believe that the data it gathers can help you
improve the quality of your site, and identifying that you have
duplicate meta tag descriptions is no exception.

Robbo, one of our regular users, has provided you with some great
advice on how you should approach writing your meta-tags (thanks,
Robbo!).  Additionally, Google's Snippets Team has written a blog-post
about how improving meta-tag descriptions can improve snippet quality
in our search results.  Check it out:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/09/improve-snippets-w...

Hope that helps,
Reid

On Jan 10, 9:47 am, Robbo wrote:

Reid/Robbo/Anyone,
I have a template file that reproduces the title and description for
every page I create.  I have the ability to specify meta description
and title within each page and I make that unique.  However, google
does not see that and only appears to see the index file that is
reproduced hence duplicate meta description/title issues.
I have contacted the developer of this template file and there is
nothing that they are willing to do.  Understand, this is something
that generates revenue with a significant amount of time and expenses
involved so it is not something that can be easily thrown out and
recreated.
Thoughts?
Thanks for your time.
Eric

On Jan 10, 1:21 pm, Reid wrote:

But how about 'short' ones?

a) Google lists - in Webmaster Tools - descriptions it feels to be
'short'.  Why is this attribute of any interest?  Sometimes they just
_are_ short.

b) What is the arbitrary limit Google has unilaterally selected?

c) What actions does Google take after it makes this unilateral and
occasionally bizarre and unjustified decision?

d) Why is Google interfering in webmasters' decisions in this manner?

And here's an example.  One of my own (less important) pages:

http://www.isham-research.co.uk/mips_g3_g4.html

Moaned about in Webmaster Tools for a short description.  Yup:

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="MIPS for G3 & G4 IBM mainframes">

And that's because - wait for it - that's _EXACTLY_ what it is.

WTF is Google wandering off to find something bigger for some bizarre
and arbitrary reason?  This is BRAIN DEAD.  Someone, somewhere
deserves to be washing cars.

Easy Fix.  In your sitmap.xml file you can't put your regular sitemap
in it. just take it out and it will fix the problem. it spders the
page twice and reads the meta tag as being duplicated. hope this helps

On Jan 10, 12:20 pm, apr7777 wrote:

Phil, don't have a coronary over it.

I'm thinking it is not the end of the world if Goggle makes a
suggestion that it feels, for whatever reason, would help improve
communicating what a page is about.

"MIPS for G3 & G4 IBM mainframes" may be exactly what a given page is
about acronyms might not always make the best descriptions as they are
usually only known and/or applicable within a small community of
interests while the longer forms are more likely to serve and reach a
wider audience.

Someone might instead think to search for "processor speeds for G3 &
G4 IBM mainframes" or something similar but if they did that,
virtually every page that showed up under "MIPS" is no where to be
found and most of the results end up being more related to Apple Mac's
CPUs.

So what if you and Google disagree over what is a better description,
is that any reason to call a process not to your liking "BRAIN DEAD"?

Over reacting a bit?

Craig

On Jan 25, 7:27 am, Phil Payne wrote:

Uh-huh, so far so good

How can that happen? Your page should have one <title> element and one
meta description. If you're making those unique when you build the
page, there's nowhere for Google to get the "index file" title and
description from.

Can you give us the URL of one of the pages where this is (allegedly)
happening?

a) Google can use the meta description to populate the snippet of text
they use to describe the page in their SERPs. If this text is too
terse, they deem it unhelpful to their users.

Who knows? You could find the number of words/characters with a little
experimentation

I guess they derive their snippet from somewhere else on the page.

They're not. What text you put in your description of your page is
your business. What they put in their description of your page is
their business.

If they *suggest* - as would I - that you leaven your acronym storm
with a little plain English, it's advice that you can choose to
ignore. It's not something to burst a blood vessel over.

Chances are there's a wrapper with those values in.
Then the person can input data that is served within the wrapper.

If there is no replacement of hte Values based o nthe inner details,
nothing is going to work.

It's quite common in a lot of cheapy/inferior systems, and to my mind
is a prime example of what not to buy and who not to buy from.