Duplicate Meta Descriptions on multi-page threads

[addamroy]

I'm getting duplicate meta descriptions on multi-page threads.

Each page of a thread has the same meta description, it's being flagged in Google Webmaster tools as such as well.

At the very least, I'd like to see a ( meta description here + Page [thread_page] ) type format somehow, just appending at least a page number to the end of the description so they're not duplicates.

[Mert Gökçeimam]

Google Webmaster account can show zillions of warnings about your page but many of them including this can be safely ignored. You guys are over worrying on many things. Google Webmasters is a basic area where google gives information to you only like not found urls etc.. Many of those warnings are simply warnings and there is noting you can do. Those will not effect any rankings or else. They are just simple warnings and no site will stay with no warning over there.

[addamroy]

Google Webmaster account can show zillions of warnings about your page but many of them including this can be safely ignored. You guys are over worrying on many things. Google Webmasters is a basic area where google gives information to you only like not found urls etc.. Many of those warnings are simply warnings and there is noting you can do. Those will not effect any rankings or else. They are just simple warnings and no site will stay with no warning over there.

So you have no interest in preventing the duplicate meta descriptions?

It may or may not be as important as many people think it is, but every little bit DOES count, I'd like to see this worked on.

[djbaxter]

The meta description tag is not a ranking factor for Google or any pother search engine. It's only use is as a search results snippet and then only if there is a sufficiently close match between the search term, the meta description tag, and the specific page content.

One could argue that having the same meta description for every page in a multi-page thread is actually an advantage, not a liability.

[addamroy]

The meta description tag is not a ranking factor for Google or any pother search engine. It's only use is as a search results snippet and then only if there is a sufficiently close match between the search term, the meta description tag, and the specific page content.

One could argue that having the same meta description for every page in a multi-page thread is actually an advantage, not a liability.

You may be right. But either way, a simple thread page # appendage to the meta description would eliminate duplicates lol

Imagine the number of people who would no longer have such a concern, if such a feature (even if it's seemingly meaningless) was to be put in place.

[Statisticus]

Google Webmaster account can show zillions of warnings about your page but many of them including this can be safely ignored. You guys are over worrying on many things. Google Webmasters is a basic area where google gives information to you only like not found urls etc.. Many of those warnings are simply warnings and there is noting you can do. Those will not effect any rankings or else. They are just simple warnings and no site will stay with no warning over there.

Hi

I agree that no site is perfect, and I'm sure you are right that many warnings (especially about things like meta descriptions) may safely be ignored - but I still find this response unsatisfactory coming as it does from an SEO company!

For many users it probably doesn't matter about some of these warnings - but for those of us publishing into competitive SEO environments we need every bit of goodness we can get. We want the peace of mind of knowing that we can effectively manage all aspects of SEO on our domains - and one problem with ignoring warnings (especially on a large domain) is that they can become too numerous to search through looking for things that are important - it's a maintenance issue.

So- rightly or wrongly - for one's SEO software provider to be appearing to take a cavalier attitude to Google's warnings doesn't inspire confidence.

Just my 2 pence, as they say - and no offence intended to any or all.

Cheerio, mike

[Mert Gökçeimam]

Actually you are completely wrong Statisticus as Page Number variable have 0 effect on any rankings. Thus it has no relevance with SEO at all.

[addamroy]

Actually you are completely wrong Statisticus as Page Number variable have 0 effect on any rankings. Thus it has no relevance with SEO at all.

Your website's meta description helps tell our search engines, and our searchers what your page is about when determining what to display and how to display it in search results.

DUPLICATE meta descriptions, should be avoided, and not ignored.

In reference to it's impact in search results, I disagree that it has ZERO relevance in search results. I do agree that it may not have MUCH of an impact, but it counts.

Google has spent millions and millions of dollars developing their analytics and webmasters platforms for site owners, they would not take the resources, cpu and database usage costs to tell us how many pages of our sites have duplicate meta descriptions if it didn't matter even the slightest bit like you say.

If GOOGLE says they're duplicates and wants you to fix them, I'd suggest that you take their advice over any other 'SEO' professional's. If google says one thing, and some seo dude says another, who's advice are you going to take?

This is a pretty simple fix in all reality, although there are differences in opinions when it comes to this, having such a feature in vbSEO would lead to less threads about the topic, less errors in google webmasters, and a bunch of thankful customers

It's something to think about, there will be absolutely no harm done by preventing duplicate meta descriptions on our forums. You've got nothing to lose by providing a fix to a simple concern.

Oh yea and this,

and no site will stay with no warning over there.

actually duplicate meta descriptions are the only warnings I have now hehe

[djbaxter]

Your website's meta description helps tell our search engines, and our searchers what your page is about when determining what to display and how to display it in search results.

DUPLICATE meta descriptions, should be avoided, and not ignored.

They are not duplicate meta descriptions if they all reference the same thread.

In reference to it's impact in search results, I disagree that it has ZERO relevance in search results. I do agree that it may not have MUCH of an impact, but it counts.

No. You are wrong. Completely wrong.

The fact that meta descriptions are not a ranking factor for any modern search engine has been known for years and confirmed by Google and Bing directly in recent years. This is not a wild guess, a hunch, or an opinion. It is fact.

Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking - Matt Cutts at Google Webmaster Central

[djbaxter]

I agree that no site is perfect, and I'm sure you are right that many warnings (especially about things like meta descriptions) may safely be ignored - but I still find this response unsatisfactory coming as it does from an SEO company!

For many users it probably doesn't matter about some of these warnings - but for those of us publishing into competitive SEO environments we need every bit of goodness we can get. We want the peace of mind of knowing that we can effectively manage all aspects of SEO on our domains - and one problem with ignoring warnings (especially on a large domain) is that they can become too numerous to search through looking for things that are important - it's a maintenance issue.

So- rightly or wrongly - for one's SEO software provider to be appearing to take a cavalier attitude to Google's warnings doesn't inspire confidence.

Just my 2 pence, as they say - and no offence intended to any or all.

Cheerio, mike

The meta description tag has nothing really to do with SEO and absolutely nothing to do with rankings on either Google or Bing. At best, it may be used as the snippet in a search result but there are many instances when even that doesn't happen.

[Statisticus]

The meta description tag has nothing really to do with SEO and absolutely nothing to do with rankings on either Google or Bing. At best, it may be used as the snippet in a search result but there are many instances when even that doesn't happen.

Ok - I believe you!

But my comments were about more than just the metadata tag.

I was mainly making the point that dismissing customers' concerns in a way which seems to trivialise them (if not belittle us for not being SEO experts) does not inspire confidence - and is therefore not good business.

Plus it should be the customer's choice as to how to deal with warnings from third parties - and if the customer wants to respond to google's warnings rather than ignore them that is hardly unreasonable.

Cheerio, Mike

[djbaxter]

I was mainly making the point that dismissing customers' concerns in a way which seems to trivialise them (if not belittle us for not being SEO experts) does not inspire confidence - and is therefore not good business.

How does informing you that it's not an SEO issue trivialize or dismiss you or anyone else?

Plus it should be the customer's choice as to how to deal with warnings from third parties - and if the customer wants to respond to google's warnings rather than ignore them that is hardly unreasonable.

The question is should vBSEO be diverting resources to something that isn't going to enhance either the forum member's experience or SEO in any way? i.e., for a feature that's of close to zero impact on a vBulletin forum? Would you be happy paying more for the product if vBSEO decided to do that? Or if you were a customer awaiting vBSEO support, would you be pleased knowing they were wasting time and manpower on something that meaningless?

[addamroy]

They are not duplicate meta descriptions if they all reference the same thread.



No. You are wrong. Completely wrong.

The fact that meta descriptions are not a ranking factor for any modern search engine has been known for years and confirmed by Google and Bing directly in recent years. This is not a wild guess, a hunch, or an opinion. It is fact.

Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking - Matt Cutts at Google Webmaster Central

You are completely wrong because you're misinterpreting my messages.

I DID NOT say they have any factors in rankings, I said they have an effect on search results. Your meta description USUALLY what shows up in search results as your description.

Either way, as I've said before, a simple edit to the vbseo software would eliminate many many discussions about this

[djbaxter]

You are completely wrong because you're misinterpreting my messages.

I DID NOT say they have any factors in rankings, I said they have an effect on search results. Your meta description USUALLY what shows up in search results as your description.

They may affect click-through rates. They do NOT affect search results. And the fact remains that if the meta-description refers to the same thread it is not duplication at all. You are talking about pagination, not duplication, and pagination is irrelevant to any aspect of SEO.

Either way, as I've said before, a simple edit to the vbseo software would eliminate many many discussions about this

"many many discussions"? Where are all these discussions happening?

[addamroy]

They may affect click-through rates. They do NOT affect search results. And the fact remains that if the meta-description refers to the same thread it is not duplication at all. You are talking about pagination, not duplication, and pagination is irrelevant to any aspect of SEO.



"many many discussions"? Where are all these discussions happening?

haha, idk i guess i threw it out there because someone said 'you guys', i assumed that was me and everyone else who may have mentioned this.

Does Google distinguish each page of a thread as individual pages, or as multiple pages of the same thread?