Duplicate meta descriptions

**weegillis** · #1 (**permalink**) 12-02-2008, 01:28 PM

PHP Code:


			
<title>Instructors :: <?php echo $cwIns ?></title>

<meta content="Independent Instructor,  <?php echo $cwIns ?>" name="description" />

<meta content="lifelong learning,adult literacy,instructor,<?php echo $cwIns ?>" name="keywords" />

Every generated page should have a unique title, description and keywords, right? The responded pages are unique, as expected. So why does GWT flag them as having duplicate descriptions?

Should the code look more like this?

PHP Code:


			
<?php 

 $str = "<title>Instructors :: " . $cwIns . "</title>\n";

 $str .= "<meta content=\"Independent Instructor, " . $cwIns . "\" name=\"description\" />\n";

 $str .= "<meta content=\"lifelong learning,adult literacy,instructor," . $cwIns . "\" name=\"keywords\" />\n";

 echo $str;

 ?>

maneetpuri · #2 (**permalink**) 12-22-2008, 06:22 AM

Hi,

GWT should not do that, but if its happening then you need to tell how your are generating the variable $cwIns?

Also open these pages in different browser windows and view the source and see if all the pages have different meta description or not.

Cheers,

**weegillis** · #3 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maneetpuri

... tell how you are generating the variable $cwIns?

Herein must lay the crux. Good catch!

The pages are generating as per schedule in all current version browsers, XP, including Safari. The user agents should be seeing the same generated page, shouldn't they?

An index page is the trap for this url, and from a lookup table supplies related data to the page. The variable value is contained in the query string and is not altered during initial processing. Since the pages are all happening per spec, there is no obvious slip up in the code that is making itself evident at this point.

Whats more, the pages are being indexed so the user agents must be seeing them. The descriptions and keywords HAVE to be different. I can't get them to be the same by any trick or fancy. And since the actual pages are making it into the index, I know it's not the fall back page being repeated for each URL.

maneetpuri · #4 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 06:22 AM

Hi,

I think you will have to do some manipulation at the stage where the variable is being created. The manipulation will be to generate different values for the descriptions.

If you can share with me the code generating this variable and give some input on how you want the description to be generated then i might comment on how this can be done.

Cheers,

~Maneet

**weegillis** · #5 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:38 PM

The landing page is index.php. index.csv consists of n rows, 1 per instructor. The first three columns are index number, instructor id and their name, following are groups of 4 columns, one group for each course taught. %1 is course id, %2 is course name, %3 is course objective index number (1..4), %4 is a status flag (0 || 1).

Each URL is double-keyed. Either an index number match, or an instructor id match will return true and route through index2.php. All others return false and fall back to index1.php, the default index page.

The main array, built as the validation lookup table remains global, while the unique variables that have been parsed out of the table are passed to index2.php, including $cwIns, all of which are declared global.

/instructors/

PHP Code:


			
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<?php
$isMatch = FALSE;
$pgId = isset($_REQUEST['id']) ? $_REQUEST['id'] : null;
if ($pgId) {
 $x = "index.csv";
 cwBuild($x);
 foreach ($cwId as $key => $val) {
  if (intval($pgId) - intval($key) == 0) {
   $isMatch = TRUE;
   cwUnique($val);
   break;
  }
 }
 if ($isMatch !== TRUE) {
  foreach ($cwId as $key => $val) {
   foreach ($val as $k => $v) {
    if ($pgId == $k) {
     $isMatch = TRUE;
     cwUnique($val);
     break 2;
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
if ($isMatch) {
 include_once "index2.php";
 } else {
 include_once "index1.php";
}
?>

</html>

<?php
function cwBuild($x) {
 global $cwId;
 $cwId = array();
 $handle = fopen($x, "r");
 while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 500, ",")) !== FALSE) {
  $num = count($data);
  $cwVal = array();
  $cwKey = array();
  $cwData = array();
  for ($c=0; $c < $num; $c++) {  
   if ($c == 0) {
    $temp = $data[$c];
   }
   if ($c == 1) {
    $tmp = $data[$c];
   }
   if ($c == 2) {
    $tp = $data[$c];
   }
   if (((1+$c)%4 == 0) && ($c > 0)) {
    $t = $data[$c];
    $c1=$c+1;
    $crsName=$data[$c1];
    $c2=$c+2;
    $crsObj=$data[$c2];
    $c3=$c+3;
    $status = $data[$c3];
    $cwVal[$t] = array($crsName,$crsObj,$status);
    $c=$c+3;
   } 
  }
  $cwData[$tp] = $cwVal;
  $cwKey[$tmp] = $cwData;
  $cwId[$temp] = $cwKey;
 }
 fclose($handle);
}
function cwUnique($val) {
 global $cwInsId,$cwIns,$cwCrsLoad;
 $cwCrsLoad = array();
 $vw=array();
 foreach ($val as $kw => $vw) {
  $cwInsId = $kw;
  $vx=array();
  foreach ($vw as $kx => $vx) {
   $cwIns = $kx;  
   $cwCrsLoad = $vx;
  }
 }
}
?>

**weegillis** · #6 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 02:20 PM

I just came from GWT where the site is given all green lights. It seems I may have answered my own question in the OP. The latter is the method employed as an experimental solution, and it seems to have worked.

It's a mystery why the UAs couldn't see what the browser was seeing in the former version. Looks like I'll be using the string method from now on.

Thank you, Maneetpuri, for the highly objective input. I'd love to take in any critical input you may have on the above code. Even while it may work, it is still the output of a PHP dabbler. I'm ripe for learning.

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