Meta data - should description be hand written

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by markdkelly, Jun 22, 2009.

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  1. #1
    I'm helping SEO a site that has thousands of pages/products - the description meta data is pulled from the product description which is displayed on the page.

    Does having what is essentially duplicate content on the same page create any SE issues?
     
    markdkelly, Jun 22, 2009 IP
  2. merlinseo

    merlinseo Well-Known Member

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    #2
    merlinseo, Jun 22, 2009 IP
  3. Canonical

    Canonical Well-Known Member

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    #3
    <meta> description elements are not used at all at Google for ranking purposes. They ARE important, however, in that they do have an impact on click-thru-rates for your pages when the <meta> description is used as the snippet in the SERPs.

    Ideally, it's best if you hand write one for each page. But for large ecommerce sites, for instance, it may be impossible or at least impractical to do so. So many sites do what you're talking about.

    Either way, it should not be considered duplicate content because it's not part of the content portion of the HTML document. It appears within the <head> element, not the <body> element. Even it it were considered part of the "content" of the page, having the same sentence(s) appear twice on the same page is not an issue. Duplicate content generally refers to the same content being found at multiple URLs which is not the case in the scenario you are describing.
     
    Canonical, Jun 22, 2009 IP
  4. markdkelly

    markdkelly Greenhorn

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    #4
    Thanks for the insight regarding meta description data. Very much appreciated. I'm sure this is covered in the forums somewhere but I'll ask again...

    Do you recommend nofollow for outgoing links or low value onsite pages (like registration, etc)
     
    markdkelly, Jun 22, 2009 IP
  5. Canonical

    Canonical Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Google has just announced that using NOFOLLOW on links to low value onsite pages for the purpose of PR Sculpting no longer works - it hasn't for over a year according to Matt Cutts post on his blog about PR and Sculpting. See the paragraph just before the first Q & A where he states:

    In other words, NOFOLLOWing outbound links on Page A no longer increases the amount of PR passed out on the remaining FOLLOWed outbound links on that same Page A. The PR of the page is now divided by the total number of outbound links (followed + nofollowed), and the PR passed out on the nofollowed like is simply wasted, goes into a black hole. So you might as well follow all outbound links UNLESS you are linking to an untrusted site and are trying to avoid inadvertently being penalized because of the actions of those other untrusted sites.
     
    Canonical, Jun 22, 2009 IP