Title and Description - how different should they be to prevent Supp results?

[youfoundjake]

Working on the site. Alot of the pages have 5 word titles, Of those 5 words, two are the same.
Is that too similar to trigger a filter?
The two words are related to the theme of the website, and ideally the search term i want results for.
And if the title matches the description, would that also trigger anything?

[MThiessen]

The title should be descriptive of what is on the page, like a very short summary of the description.

If two of your pages have the exact same title, are the exactly the same then, in content? You may want to point out the difference with a word in the title and the description.

To make your site better for your readers, it should accuratly reflect what the user will see when they click you from an SE.

If you write title's and descriptions for the sole purpose of SE placement you will not do as well as if you wrote them for the public. You should consider both in your strategy, giving the reader priority.

Duplicate titles and descriptions ALONE will not cause you a filter IMO, BUT it is likely part of the overall picture G looks at, so if the T & D are the same, AND a good percentage of the content is too, expect a filter.

[dibbern2]

Jake: I think I know what your getting at, and it has nothing to do with the advice to write good honest titles. You are probably already doing that, so you don't need the lecture.

Is it something like "Fishing in Alaska" and "Fishing in Texas", where you can't avoid certain repetitions?

I think you'll get by with 2 out of 5 word duplications, but its just my opinion. I've had the same issue, and I have gone with a ratio similiar to what you propose.

[Whitey]

I think I'm finding that differentiating the meta description and title is an essential first step.

But equally important is ensuring that the body content is considerably varied. So i believe it's a 3 step interdependent thing.

[youfoundjake]

dibbern2:
good example
Thats exactly the issue im addressing.
Its frustrating when I want to have the site show up in SERPS for fishing, but getting dinged because the titles are repeating titles. 50 pages with 50 similar titles, fishing in "state".
Of course the pages are for visitors, no doubt about it, but try to apply a logical order to it makes it a little difficult.
Whitey:
Thanks, will look into changing up the title and description, and the body of each page is for the most part different.

[seoram]

IMO titles are the headings of the contents of the page. What I would additionally add is the name of the site to create a brand image

[fibalogger]

how different should they be to prevent Supp results

The more different they are, the more covering of different keywords is possible. The longer they are, the less of weight has a single key.