WEB1028 - The <meta name="description"> tag contents are not unique within the site

  • Article

Each <meta name="description"> tag in a site should be unique.

Explanation

Because search engines typically display the contents of the <meta name="description"> tag in search results, each page should have a single, unique description that accurately reflects the contents of the page.

Details

The <meta name="description"> tag is one of the most important tags that the site developer controls that can influence the relevance and ranking of a site in search-engine results. The <meta name="description"> tag helps differentiate sites in search-engine results. A precise, descriptive snippet of descriptive text can improve the click-through volume to the site.

If two pages in a site contain identical <meta name="description"> tags, a search engine may arbitrarily decide which one is the most relevant in the search-engine results. This may reduce the page relevancy for a keyword search and may lower the search-engine ranking of both pages.

Example

The following is an example of correctly formatted <meta name="description"> and <meta name="keywords"> tags.

<head>
    <title>Contact Proseware, Inc.</title>
    <meta name="description" content="Contact information for Proseware, Inc., including addresses, phone numbers, and email"/>
    <meta name="keywords" content="Proseware,Proseware applications,Proseware utilities,Proseware tools,Proseware server tools"/>
</head>

See also

Concepts

Description guidelines for SEO
SEO concepts
Search Engine Optimization

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