# Google Webmaster Tools does not like topics description

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [May 3, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278 "2014-05-03T13:25:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![CamilleRoux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/camilleroux/32/119575_2.png) [@CamilleRoux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/CamilleRoux)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/1 "2014-05-03T13:25:42Z")

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All the topics have the same meta description and GWT doesn’t like it:  
 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/2X/9/94f7e69b446d4fc63e4b92118cb1d599cbf7fcac.png)

What about using an excerpt of the topic content instead?

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/2 "2014-05-03T16:59:09Z")

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I agree with this, @neil can you make it so meta description on topic pages uses the excerpt function (same one we use for pinned topics) for the meta description?

I know we did this for category pages with the category description courtesy of @djensen47’s suggestion and it worked great.

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### Author: ![neil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/neil/32/102150_2.png) [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/3 "2014-05-05T15:45:28Z")

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We already do that. [Have a look](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278.rss). What is GWT complaining about?

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/4 "2014-05-05T23:29:02Z")

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I don’t think we do.. I visited this topic with JavaScript disabled and I see

```plaintext
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" class="desktop-view not-mobile-device">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Google Webmaster Tools does not like topics description - Discourse Meta</title>
    <meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport">
    <meta content="Feedback forum for the next-generation open source Discourse forum software" name="description">
    <meta content="" name="author">

```

I don’t think having the same **description** here on every Topic page is a good idea?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/5 "2014-05-05T23:30:17Z")

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Hmm we might have a regression on the category page as well, when I visit `/category/bug` I see

```plaintext
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" class="desktop-view not-mobile-device">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>bug Topics - Discourse Meta</title>
    <meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport">
    <meta content="Feedback forum for the next-generation open source Discourse forum software" name="description">
    <meta content="" name="author">

```

I’m 99.99% sure the Description field here should be the category description..

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![neil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/neil/32/102150_2.png) [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/6 "2014-05-06T23:32:36Z")

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Oh I’m dumb, I had RSS on the brain. I was looking at RSS for some reason…

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/7 "2014-05-06T23:47:14Z")

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Yeah let’s make sure these descriptions are actually excerpts on topics. And particularly on the categories, the description should be the standard category description.

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### Author: ![neil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/neil/32/102150_2.png) [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/8 "2014-05-07T15:47:29Z")

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> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Yeah let’s make sure these descriptions are actually excerpts on topics. And particularly on the categories, the description should be the standard category description.

Done and done. Enjoy, crawlers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/google-webmaster-tools-does-not-like-topics-description/15278/9 "2014-05-10T19:19:55Z")

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