SEO - Meta descriptions advice

[colcar]

I've realised that meta description in Google search is the same for my forum, Facebook and Twitter.

Is having the same meta description detrimental for my forum postition? Might it be holding me back from getting the top spot?

 

[Mr Lucky]

I am of the opinion meta description has less (if anything) to do with actual search engine result position and more more for conversions, ie to tempt the potential customer/user to click on your listing rather than other ones.

Obviously keywords are good, but that is incidental because they are the main point of the page and so not having them there would not be so good for clickthroughs from Google.

So if someone wants Cardiff City quizzes, having that in the description is not going to impress Google unless you actually have a quiz or quizzes on the page. But it will grab the people who actually find the site in the list and want a quiz.

 

[colcar]

I am of the opinion meta description has less (if anything) to do with actual search engine result position and more more for conversions, ie to tempt the potential customer/user to click on your listing rather than other ones.

Obviously keywords are good, but that is incidental because they are the main point of the page and so not having them there would not be so good for clickthroughs from Google.

So if someone wants Cardiff City quizzes, having that in the description is not going to impress Google unless you actually have a quiz or quizzes on the page. But it will grab the people who actually find the site in the list and want a quiz.

Ok thanks for that. I always heard that having the same copy on different websites was bad for SEO but I guess that doesn't really matter for meta descriptions?

 

[Mr Lucky]

Ok thanks for that. I always heard that having the same copy on different websites was bad for SEO but I guess that doesn't really matter for meta descriptions?

You are correct, duplicate pages may be bad. Not do much due to any penalty, more that they are directly competing with each other and it’s considered good practice to make one the canonical.

I don’t think It applies to meta descriptions.