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SEO Scanner Tool: More Than One Meta Description Tag

More than one Meta Description HTML tag was found on your page. You should remove the Meta Description HTML tags that are not your primary focus of your page.

What does this mean?

This Meta Description HTML  tag issue is coming from your theme.
 
Our app is warning you that the back-end code on your theme is causing a problem. This type of issue requires custom development on your theme in order to be fixed.
 
For good SEO, it’s ideal to have only one Meta Description HTML tag that contains your target keyword. If there are too many Meta Description HTML tags with different text, this can confuse Google.
 
The Meta Description HTML tag signals to Google what keyword you want to rank for.
It’s also the short description (blurb) that appears in search results below the URL.  
 
The reason this happened is most likely due to your theme having duplicate meta tags. This occurs because theme developers aren’t SEO experts so they sometimes have incorrect code.
 
To fix this issue, I recommend:
2.) get in touch with the theme developer 
3.) or hire a professional on Shopify Experts who can remove any unnecessary Meta Description HTML tags from your code
 

Why is this important?

You only want 1 meta description listed on your website’s code. If there are 2 meta descriptions this can confuse search engines (especially if they say different things!)

The first problem is that Google won’t know which one to use and they’ll have to figure out which one to display in search results.

Second, you want to make sure you have control over which meta description is being seen and used by Google because it should contain your keyword that you’re trying to rank for.

Example

Let’s suppose my website has two Meta Description HTML tags on the back-end code and I’m seeing this error message.

In a perfect world, my Meta Description HTML tag should contain the text that I wrote for my meta description. In my meta description I made sure to carefully use my keyword which is “portable pocket watch”

Since I have an extra Meta Description HTML tag that contains different text, how will Google know what I want to rank for?

This will confuse Google and they won’t have a clear idea of your target keyword which is a problem.

 

My first Meta Description HTML Tag = This amazing portable pocket watch is great for traveling, business professionals and special occasions. Makes the perfect gift for any special man in your life

(Correct! contains my keyword)

 

My second Meta Description HTML tag = Gifts for men, Lovely gift for all occasions, 1.1 lbs, ships worldwide, visit our online store for more information and get in touch with us if you need any custom gift ideas.

(Wrong, unnecessary Meta Description HTML tag with different text which will confuse Google. Also does not contain my keyword)

How can I fix this?

The way to fix this is to remove all of the extra meta descriptions tags and leave only the one you want to use for your webpage.

We  recommend hiring a programmer on the Shopify Experts program who can do this for you. Just make sure they let you know what each meta description says so that you can pick the one that you want to leave (that contains your keyword and has the right message).

If you are an experienced coder, you can alter this code in the product.liquid file  (this is normally where this will live, but this is normally dependent upon the theme).

Again, if you aren’t an experienced coder, we advise against fixing your own code because you can accidentally break the entire layout of your website.

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