This may seem basic but I have never encountered it.

I have a client that has some pages on their site with some repetitive metadata. A few of these pages have been indexed in both G and Y so it seems not to be an issue.

However, G is reporting 36K in the index - 700 of them are pages while the rest are just URL's - all of which have double metadata.

Logically I would say that this would be a problem so I am really looking for verification. The metadata "goes a little something like this":

<title>A Properly Written - Title Tag Here - Company Branding</title>
<meta name='description' content='Co Name' />
<meta name='keywords' content='Co Name' />
<meta name='description' content=A properly written description />
<meta name='keywords' content=Prperly written keywords/>

What do you think? Does it seem like the SE's could intrpret this as sp@m?

Thanks,
CaliGirl

I have found that where repetitive meta data exists, search engines will index the first occurrence they find and ignore repeated occurrences.

Therefore if you have a good meta description content for example in your 2nd meta description tag but not your first, then the SEs are not going to find that 2nd one.

That being said, you should fix your code so that you have only one occurrence of each, not that it is considered spam but rather just bad html.

My data and experience mirrors Davids - the first instance is usually the one indexed. I had this happen to a client who used includes on a page for the top, side menu, and bottom of the page, and had accidently put metadata in each of these include pages.

Oddly, the LAST title showing up seemed to be the one that was indexed, not the first. But the first metadata was taken. Weird.

Like David, I recommend you fix it, but it won't kill you.

Ian

Thanks for your answers. I will, of course, tell them to clean up the HTML. It is a CMS system so I do think that the first instances are input automatically. I did note that it is the last description that is being used.

CaliGirl

Hi Guys, :rolleyes:

This is a simple question.

Is it worth using loads of quaility keyword and description metadata in order to help your internet position and also to help drive traffic to the website.

If so which search engines use and looks at the metadata??

Also is text links at the bottom of your webpages worth using for the same reasons??

Cheers
Andy

Andy,

You should include a concise description tag because if it includes the keywords, it is used in the results display that people see and decide what site to visit. Getting a high ranking is not your goal - getting people to visit is ! So include keywords, keep it short (or it will be cut) and make it enticing.

'Bottom of page links' avoids users having to scroll back up the page so is a good idea for that reason.

Steve

Many thanks for your reply. :)

Does anyone know the text links at the bottom of the page gets indexed?

Cheers

Gareth