Eliminate "duplicate content" in Reviews pages metatags?

Hello all,
I use "Website auditor", and it found duplicate meta descriptions.
It claims that the meta-description in "reviews" is the same as the one on the product.
For example:
htps://www.petrutech.com/Powerul-uhf-transmitters-and-vox/Voice-Activated-transmitter-3V-70mW-UHF-Quartz-Stabilized-VOX/Reviews
and
htps://www.petrutech.com/Powerul-uhf-transmitters-and-vox/Voice-Activated-transmitter-3V-70mW-UHF-Quartz-Stabilized-VOX

Is there any way to fix it?

Thanks in advance!

I suppose if Google just wants to see the word "Review" before the description you could insert it. To do that make an override copy of your /includes/meta_tags.php file and add $reviews_on . to the description metatag define the same way it's done for the title. If you look at this snippet of code (from v157) you'd do it on lines 252 and 283: https://github.com/zencart/zencart/blob/ac93cffc22aee90a8872596e41335233d0afd13f/includes/modules/meta_tags.php#L251-L283

If you want more extensive changes than that you'd need to copy the whole section used for products up into the reviews section and apply your own customizations there.

DrByte:

I suppose if Google just wants to see the word "Review" before the description you could insert it.
That won't work. Google crawls in "shingles". You would need to add or change a word every 5 words to be unique.

~Melanie

@mprough What then would be a good approach for auto-generated meta-descriptions for a product-reviews page?
Maybe it should just be shortened to less than 5 words? basically replace the description with the title? (eg: "Reviews for {product name}").
Or does Google want you to duplicate the first/best review in the meta-description?

DrByte:

@mprough What then would be a good approach for auto-generated meta-descriptions for a product-reviews page?
Maybe it should just be shortened to less than 5 words? basically replace the description with the title? (eg: "Reviews for {product name}").
Or does Google want you to duplicate the first/best review in the meta-description?

Replacing the description with the title would also cause duplicity warnings... and be far more damaging because the title is actually used to rank whilst the descriptions are not.

Shortening would not work either, it would still be duplicate.

It has long been believed that Google crawls in 10 word shingles, so mathematically if you add or change a word every 5 words you are 100% unique.

Google says every page should be unique, even satellite pages like reviews.

They need definable tags to solve this.

~Melanie

mprough:

They need definable tags to solve this.
(assuming by "definable tags" you mean "yet another database field to set a specific meta-description for product reviews")...

But ... what would they put in them, even if they were offered?
Everyone is gonna start by saying "gosh, why doesn't it just put my product name in there for me automatically?"
... and then google will complain, and then they'll prefix it with "Review for"
... and then you're saying that google will still complain
... and people still won't know what to do ..... and then they'll probably resort to keyword-stuffing.

DrByte:

(assuming by "definable tags" you mean "yet another database field to set a specific meta-description for product reviews")...

But ... what would they put in them, even if they were offered?
Everyone is gonna start by saying "gosh, why doesn't it just put my product name in there for me automatically?"
... and then google will complain, and then they'll prefix it with "Review for"
... and then you're saying that google will still complain
... and people still won't know what to do ..... and then they'll probably resort to keyword-stuffing.

Don't shoot the messenger =)

mprough:

Don't shoot the messenger =)

None intended!

Rant aside, finding a strong starting point for storeowners is my goal.

There is no other way I can think of. I have struggled with the reviews for a great many years, it isn't a new problem. I ignore these warning in my webmaster account because there is nothing meaningful I can do about it.

This helps a great deal with helping Google understand https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet

~Melanie