Skip to content
SERPCompass

Meta descriptions that are missing, duplicated, too long or too short

Give every page its own meta description: one or two plain sentences, in the page's head, that tell a searcher what the page offers. Google may show it as the text under your result's title, though it often picks text from the page instead. SERPCompass flags descriptions under 70 or over 160 characters, and pages that share one. Most site builders and SEO plugins have a description field.

Last updated 28 October 2026, when every step was checked against the vendor's documentation.

Why it matters

The snippet is the text under the title link in a Google result. Google says it builds snippets mainly from the page's own content, choosing what best fits each search, and sometimes uses the page's <meta name="description"> instead when that describes the page more accurately. A deliberate description is your one chance to write that summary yourself; Google likens a good one to a pitch that tells the searcher this page is the one they want.

Repeated descriptions waste that chance. Google says identical or similar descriptions on every page are not helpful when individual pages appear in results, and suggests a site-level description for the home page and other aggregation pages and a page-level one everywhere else. If you cannot write them all, start with the home page and your most visited pages.

Length is a display question, not a rule. Google says there is no limit on how long a meta description can be, and it shortens the snippet as needed, typically to fit the device's width. SERPCompass flags descriptions over 160 characters because longer ones are often cut off in results, and under 70 because a very short one rarely says enough to choose the page by. Both numbers are our thresholds, not Google's.

The description is about the click, not the ranking. In a 2009 post Google said it does not use the description meta tag in ranking, and its documentation today covers the description under how a page appears in results.

The HTML standard allows no more than one description <meta> element per page. A second one appears when a theme and an SEO plugin each write one. Google does not document which one it uses, and SERPCompass reads the first, so leave only one.

The audit findings this guide fixes: Missing meta description; Duplicate meta descriptions; Meta description too long or too short.

Find every page with this problem

Run the free scan on your domain. It reads the meta description of every page it crawls and shows your most urgent findings with the number of pages each affects; the Gap Report and a SERPCompass workspace list the affected pages themselves. Pages marked noindex are left out of all three checks. Pages whose canonical points to another URL, and regional versions of one page in the same language that name each other with hreflang, are not counted as duplicates. To check one page by hand, view its source and search for name="description": there should be exactly one match, inside the <head>, with text in its content.

Scan my site free

How to fix it on your platform

The og:description that social networks show when your page is shared is a separate field, and stopping snippets with nosnippet or max-snippet is not covered here.

WordPress (no SEO plugin)

  1. Check whether anything writes a description: WordPress's own documentation says meta tags are not included by default. View the source of a post and search for name="description"; no match means nothing on the site writes one.
  2. The simplest fix is an SEO plugin: go to Plugins > Add New, search for the plugin, click Install Now, then Activate. Yoast SEO and Rank Math, below, each add a description field to every post and page.
  3. Without a plugin, a developer can print the tag from a child theme, hooked to the wp_head action, which prints data in the page's head. Fill it with each post's own text, never one fixed sentence for the whole site.
  4. Keep one source only: if you add an SEO plugin later, remove the theme's tag, or every page will carry two descriptions.

Sources: Search Engine Optimization (WordPress documentation); Manage Plugins (WordPress documentation); wp_head (WordPress developer reference); Child themes (WordPress theme handbook); Standard metadata names: description (HTML Standard, WHATWG).

WordPress with Yoast SEO

  1. Open the post or page in the editor.
  2. Open the Yoast SEO sidebar with the Yoast icon at the top right of the screen, or scroll to the Yoast SEO meta box below the content.
  3. Open Search appearance (in the sidebar it sits under Google preview) and type the description into the Meta description field. The bar under the field turns orange or red when Yoast judges the description too long.
  4. Save or update the post.
  5. To change the template every post, page or the homepage uses by default: in the Yoast SEO menu, click Settings, then Content types, choose Homepage, Posts or Pages, edit the meta description under Search appearance and click Save changes. Build it with Insert variable from each page's own details: a template of fixed text gives every page the same description.

Sources: How to use the search appearance preview in Yoast SEO (Yoast); How to change SEO title and meta description templates in Yoast SEO (Yoast).

WordPress with Rank Math

  1. Open the post or page in the editor and click the Rank Math icon at the top right of the screen; the General tab opens.
  2. Click Edit Snippet to open the preview window and type the description into its description field.
  3. Save or update the post.
  4. To change the defaults, open Rank Math's Titles and Meta settings from the WordPress menu and edit Single Post Description under Posts, Single Page Description under Pages, or Homepage Meta Description under Homepage. The drop-down at the end of each text area lists the variables you can use.

Sources: General tab in the meta box (Rank Math); Titles and Meta options and settings (Rank Math).

Shopify

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products and click the product.
  2. In the Search engine listing section, click the pencil icon.
  3. Type the description into the Meta description field and click Save. Shopify says text past 320 characters might be cut off in results, but its SEO article recommends 160, which is also where SERPCompass flags a description as too long.
  4. For a page, go to Online Store > Pages, click the page, click Edit website SEO in the Search engine listing preview section, fill in the Description field and click Save.
  5. For the home page, go to Online Store > Preferences, enter the meta description in the Social sharing image and SEO section and click Save.
  6. Collection pages and blog posts can carry their own meta description as well; give each one its own rather than leaving them alike.

Sources: Adding and updating products (Shopify Help Center); Adding keywords for SEO to your Shopify store (Shopify Help Center).

Wix

  1. Open your site in the editor and click Pages & Menu on the left (Pages in the Studio Editor).
  2. Click the More Actions icon next to the page and choose SEO basics.
  3. Type the description into the Meta description (description in search results) field.
  4. Click Publish at the top right of the editor.
  5. For a Wix Stores product, go to Products in your site's dashboard, click the product, click Edit SEO Settings under Marketing & SEO, click Basics, fill in Meta description and click Save.
  6. For a blog post, go to Blog in your site's dashboard, select the post, click SEO in the left sidebar, fill in Meta description and click Publish.

Sources: Adding SEO title tags and meta descriptions to your pages (Wix Help Center); Customizing your page's SEO settings in the SEO panel (Wix Help Center).

Squarespace

  1. In the Pages panel, hover over the page and click the gear icon beside its title.
  2. Open the SEO tab, type the description into the SEO Description field and click Save.
  3. For a blog post or event, open its page, hover over the item and click Edit (on version 7.1, then the gear icon at the top right); for a product, double-click it. Then use the SEO tab the same way.
  4. The home page uses the SEO site description instead. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel and click SEO Settings (on version 7.0, the SEO appearance panel), choose the Home tab under Search appearance, edit SEO site description and click Save.
  5. Squarespace accepts up to 400 characters and suggests 50 to 300; SERPCompass still flags anything over 160, the point at which Squarespace itself says search engines cut descriptions off.

Source: Adding SEO descriptions (Squarespace Help Center).

Webflow

  1. In the Designer, open the Pages panel and open the page's Page settings.
  2. Under SEO settings, type the description into the Meta description field.
  3. For a Collection template page, such as blog posts, build the description from the Collection's fields in the same SEO settings, so each item gets its own description instead of one shared by all.
  4. Publish the site: the new description is not live until you do.

Sources: SEO tools in Webflow (Webflow University); Add SEO title and meta description (Webflow Help Center).

Plain HTML

  1. Put one <meta name="description" content="..."> element inside the <head> of every page.
  2. Write the summary as plain text in the content attribute. If the attribute is wrapped in double quotes, write a quote inside the text as &quot;: a bare " ends the attribute and cuts the description short.
  3. If your pages share a template, pass each page's own description into it rather than printing one on every page. On a large, database-driven site, build it from the page's own data: Google encourages generated descriptions as long as they read naturally and differ from page to page.
  4. If a page has two description elements, delete one: the HTML standard allows no more than one per page.

Sources: Standard metadata names: description (HTML Standard, WHATWG); Attributes (HTML Standard, WHATWG); Meta tags and attributes that Google supports (Google Search Central); Control your snippets in search results (Google Search Central).

Examples

  • Bad 
    <head>
  <title>Drain cleaning | Corner Plumbing</title>
</head>

    No description at all: the snippet is always whatever text Google picks from the page.

  • Bad 
    <meta name="description" content="plumber, plumbing, drain cleaning, Coimbatore, cheap plumber, best plumber">

    A keyword list. Google says long strings of keywords give no clear idea of the page and are less likely to be shown.

  • Bad 
    /services/plumbing/  <meta name="description" content="Corner Plumbing: plumbing services you can trust.">
/services/drains/    <meta name="description" content="Corner Plumbing: plumbing services you can trust.">

    Two pages, one description: in results they read as the same page.

  • Bad 
    <meta name="description" content="Drain cleaning.">

    15 characters: nothing a searcher could choose the page by.

  • Good 
    <meta name="description" content="Blocked drain in Coimbatore? We clear sinks, toilets and main drains the same day, at a fixed price agreed before we start.">

    What the page offers, where and on what terms, in one sentence a person would say. 123 characters, and unique to this page.

  • Good 
    <meta name="description" content="Single-lever brass kitchen tap with a swivel spout. Fits standard 35 mm sink holes; hoses and fixings included. Ten-year warranty.">

    A product page: the details a buyer compares, gathered in one place, as Google suggests. 130 characters.

Common mistakes

  • Leaving one sentence in a theme, template or SEO plugin default, so every page carries the same description.
  • Writing a list of keywords instead of a sentence a person would read.
  • Assuming the page's opening paragraph is the description. Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Yoast SEO and Rank Math each keep a separate description field for search results; check the page source to see what is actually written.
  • Adding a description in an SEO plugin while the theme still prints its own, which leaves two description elements on the page.
  • Promising what the page does not deliver. Google uses the description only when it judges it describes the page more accurately than text from the page itself.
  • Counting characters to the last one. Google shortens snippets to fit the device's width, so put the most useful information first instead.
  • Putting a bare double quote inside a double-quoted content attribute, which ends the attribute and silently cuts the description short.

Questions and answers

How long should a meta description be?

Google sets no fixed length. It says there is no limit on how long a meta description can be, and it shortens snippets as needed, typically to fit the device's width. SERPCompass flags descriptions under 70 characters, which rarely say enough, and over 160, which are often cut off in results. Put the most useful information first, so a cut costs only the end.

Why does Google show different text from my meta description?

Google builds snippets mainly from the page's own content, choosing the text that best fits each search, so one page can show different snippets for different searches. It uses the meta description when it judges that it describes the page more accurately than text taken from the page. A specific, accurate description gives yours the best chance, but Google decides.

Does the meta description affect rankings?

Not by Google's own account: in a 2009 post it said it does not use the description meta tag in ranking. The description matters after ranking, when a searcher reads your result and decides whether to click, so write it for that person rather than for a keyword count.

Does every page need a different meta description?

Wherever you can, yes. Google says identical or similar descriptions on every page are not helpful when individual pages appear in results. It suggests a site-level description for the home page and other aggregation pages and a page-level one everywhere else. On a large site, generate them from each page's own data, and write the home page and your most visited pages by hand first.

How long until Google shows my new description?

Google can only use it after it crawls the page again, and it promises no time: crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks. For an important page, the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console can ask Google to crawl it again; asking repeatedly does not make it faster. Even then, Google may still choose text from the page for some searches.

Sources

Every step above was checked against these documents on 28 October 2026. Vendors change their menus; if a step no longer matches, the vendor's page is the authority.

Start with a free scan of your site.

Two to five minutes, no account. You get your three most urgent findings, and the exact count of everything else.

Free, 2–5 minutes, no account needed.