Best Practices for Identifying And Fixing Duplicate Meta Descriptions On A Website


The meta description is one of the most crucial aspects of search engine optimization. In search engine results, the meta description is the text that displays directly behind the page title (SERP). Gives a quick overview of the page's content.

Write an engaging meta description to increase your website's visibility. It does this by giving a tantalizing preview of the content they will discover on your site. But your website's SEO will suffer if you have duplicate meta descriptions or poorly worded ones. Your next task is to educate yourself on identifying instances of duplicate meta descriptions.

We'll talk about Google's rules for Duplicate meta descriptions here. Find out what happens to your search engine rankings when you use duplicate meta descriptions.

What are Duplicate Meta Descriptions?

Meta descriptions are deemed duplicates if more than two are the same or comparable on your site. This occurs most often on sites that provide several identical items or services and may have used a single meta description "template" for all of them.

Duplicates are troublesome in helping search engines comprehend the context of your website; how should Google prioritize showing one page when you have the same fundamental description across numerous other pages? They have further issues (brevity, lack of description), but that's material for a different article.

Changing a keyword across many otherwise identical descriptions may seem like the solution everyone is searching for, but it is not.

Why Do We Need to Avoid Using the Same Meta Description?

Google has said that having several meta descriptions for the same page is bad for SEO. This is because search engines might get confused by redundant meta descriptions. Because of this, it's hard to tell which page should be prioritized for a given keyword.

Also, repeated meta descriptions might be detrimental to UX. The same meta description on different sites might confuse the user into thinking that the pages are interchangeable. This may prevent them from visiting any of the linked sites.

How Can I Tell If I Have Two Identical Meta Descriptions?

Identifying pages on your site that include duplicate meta descriptions is simple.

Website Crawlers

Using a website crawler is one of the simplest techniques to detect Duplicate meta descriptions. Screaming Frog and SEMrush are two websites that may help you out. These programmes will analyse your site and provide a report detailing overlapping meta descriptions.

Manual Inspections

In addition to using tools, you can manually examine your website's pages for duplicate meta descriptions. To do so, open each page in your browser and look at its source code. The HTML head is the normal location for the meta description element.

If you have duplicate meta descriptions, what can you do to fix them?

If you discover duplicate meta descriptions on your site, you must take immediate action to rectify the situation. Now we'll look at some best practices for enhancing duplicate meta descriptions and see whether they may work for you.

Meta descriptions need to be rewritten

Rewriting redundant meta descriptions is the most efficient technique to repair them. Each meta description must be unique and provide a clear synopsis of the page's information. Meta descriptions work best when they include the page's principal keyword and a clear CTA. In turn, this boosts the page's click-through rate.

Take Use of Updateable Meta Descriptions

The meta description of each page may be produced dynamically according to its content. A content management system (CMS) or plugin may facilitate this. Using this method, you can generate meta descriptions on the fly. Each page on your site should have its unique and relevant meta description, and dynamic meta descriptions may assist you in achieving this goal.

No Index Tags

There may be instances when you want certain websites hidden from search engine results. When you want to prevent search engines from indexing certain sites, use the no-index tag. If you do this, you won't have to worry about duplicating meta descriptions. Search engines will disregard such pages when determining rankings for certain keywords.

Make Usage Canonical Tags

HTML canonical tags indicate to search engines that a certain page has the definitive version of a material. Use a canonical tag if you have numerous pages that contain the same or very similar information. If you do this, the search engine will be better able to determine which page should be prioritized when trying to rank for a certain keyword.

Integrate Structured Data

Structured data is a sort of coding that offers extra information about a website's content. With structured data, you may provide search engines with more information about your page's content. By doing so, you may avoid having many meta descriptions for your site and perhaps boost your search engine results.

Don't Rely on Pre-Made Templates

Using a meta-description template is a major contributor to the problem of content duplication. Whereas templates might help save time, they also increase the likelihood of content duplication. Create separate meta descriptions for each page of your site instead.

Redirect to New Location 301

Your old links will automatically be redirected to your new Address after setting up a 301 redirect. It instructs Google to give the new URL preference in search results and to transfer all link juice from the old sites. If you don't require access to several website versions, the 301 redirect is the way to go.

Conclusion

To sum up, having several identical meta descriptions for your website is bad for SEO and the customer experience. Duplicate meta descriptions might be considered spammy, according to Google. Your site may face sanctions if this continues.

Finding instances of duplicate meta descriptions and updating them is crucial for search engine optimisation and getting targeted visitors to your site. Ensure the meta descriptions for each site page are distinct and informative. Your website's exposure to SERPs and the quality of service you deliver to visitors may benefit from this.

Your meta descriptions are the first impression your website will create on search engine users. Create meta descriptions that stand out and provide value. In this method, you may make your site more visible in search engines, increasing the number of visitors you get.

Updated on: 06-Apr-2023

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