Can I use the same text in my meta description as I put in my post excerpt?

[seowhiskey]

Hi,

I'm just trying to understand the right way to optimise my blog posts and this is likely a dumb question... but to what extent should the text in my meta description differ from the text in my post excerpts?

cheers, Andrew

[WesleySmits]

Wouldn't recommend using exactly the same text. Always try to avoid duplicate texts anywhere on the web. I know it's a lot of work to write a blog post, an excerpt and a meta description text but it's worth the effort as long as the content you write is of good quality.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

I agree.  Each should target it's purpose.  If they are the same, fine, if not, fine too.  My excerpts are usually longer than my meta descriptions and for that reason alone they are typically different, but it's not my objective to make them different.

Best,
Christopher

[Raydon]

Hi Christopher

I am not aware of any specific tests, but In my experience I would say that it will depend. Sometimes you may not want a too long of a url string, while your title could technically be long and yet visually fit nicely on page.

But for SEO purposes and for ranking, it definitely helps in my opinion to include the proper long tail kw string of focus in both url and page title tag. Those are among the most worth on-page cues one can utilize for best results.

[TakeshiYoung]

The meta description is the description that is usually displayed in the search results (usually, because Google can change it to whatever they want). It has absolutely zero impact on your SEO rankings. What you want to do with the meta description is make it compelling so that people will click through to your site. Approach it like you approach writing copy for an Adwords ad.

The excerpt (I'm assuming you're using Wordpress) is the snippet of text that appears on category pages and other archive pages on your site. Usually, this is just the first several lines of your post, but you can customize this to be a short summary of the content of the post. The summary approach is better from an SEO perspective since it is unique content, and may be a better experience for your users as well. However, writing a custom excerpt for each and every post can take time & resources, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether it's worth the effort.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

My excerpts do not appear anywhere on the page.  They appear on the category page that links to the page.

Best,
Christopher

[brad.s.knutson]

The post excerpt is likely the first paragraph or so of your post, and often times doesn't include your target keywords and is not a good preview of what the post is all about.

You should tailor your meta description to potential readers.  Give them a reason to click through and read your article.

Your Open Graph description should also be tailored for social networks to promote sharing.  This description is likely different than your meta description and probably much different then your post excerpt.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

Hi Omid, has someone tested same vs different to show that one is better than the other?

Best,
Christopher

[Raydon]

not identical text. best is not to do that. however, you should and are encouraged to use the same targeted keywords in meta description and post excerpt and if fitting ,post url and title. try to avoid identical strings of words, no identical sentences, stay unique in each readable text section as much as possible, while holding on to your desire kw.

title and url being the same is perfectly ok.