Penalized for duplicate meta tags?

same title & description on several pages

[Eljaybe]

I'm still trying to figure out why my site has dropped from Google results, and has not returned, since the Florida update.
I'm wondering if part of the reason is because I have the same title & description for a few of my pages on the site? The title & description I am using applies to the theme of the site, but maybe not the specific page. Does Google see this as a problem and would penalize you for it?

[Haecceity]

You wouldn't be penalized for that, although you're underoptimizing by lacking variety.

[caveman]

'Penalty' is a much misunderstood, overused word.

Put it this way: Fix it. ;-)

[nileshkurhade]

'Penalty' is a much misunderstood, overused word.

I agree, too many SEOs after losing their ranking belive they have been penalized.

[Marcia]

Eljaybe, is anything else on those pages identical besides just the meta tags, like anything at the top of the page such as alt text in a linked image, or H1 tags?

How about the HTML structure? Are you using tables?

[lazurus]

Eljaybe, just to concur with most here. It's VERY unikley you would be penalized. Your pages are either in the index or not in the index.

Having said the above, it is an opportunity lost. Mix them up a bit.

[Eljaybe]

Yes, I plan on revising the titles & descriptions to better describe the content on each page. I was just wondering if I was being penalized by Google for having it that way for some time.

Nothing else on the pages are duplicated. The content is different, too.

[caveman]

At the very least, the point about lost opportunity has been made here and is quite true.

Regarding your question about 'penalties' try thinking of it in a slightly different way. If before you were doing something that involved a lot of repetition of important keywords, you may have benefitted from it, perhaps more than you "should" have. Some believe, myself included, that in more recent G updates (or whatever they're called now), algo elements have discounted more of that sort of "cheap SEO."

Whether sites have received true "penalties" has been a topic of some hot debate, though it's my perception that most senior members in here are skeptical.

Rather, what might be happening is that if G sees what it considers "over repition" of some keywords, the page may not appear for those keywords. *If* this exists, it's probably not related to one specific element of your site, but a combination of elements done to excess, (since for almost any single component, e.g. Titles, there are exceptions that disprove penalty theories).

If a page is lost for over repetition across multiple site components, many call that a penalty. But in fact, it's simply a variation of an algo that seeks to clean some of the rampant spam out of the SERP's. Also, there's the possiblity that most of the recently lost pages have little to do with new filters, and more to do with issues related to G's attempt to better "understand" word variations and language in general.

So far, the effectiveness of G's recent effort to clean some of the spam has been a failure (IMO), characterized in part by far less relevant SERP's for *some* searches, and the ongoing presence of some of the worst spam offenders on the Web. Cloakers for example, are doing better than ever.