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Meta description missing: how to fix it

A meta description is missing when the head has no description tag or the tag is empty. Engines then pick text from the page, and the text may be boilerplate. Add one description of 50 to 160 characters that summarises the page in plain words. The fix takes about 10 minutes per template.

By SeenLens · Last updated

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What this check tests

SeenLens reads <meta name="description"> from the page HTML.

How the meta-description check scores the tag
ResultWhat SeenLens found
FailNo description tag, or an empty one
WarnMore than one description tag, or one shorter than 50 or longer than 160 characters
PassOne description of 50 to 160 characters

Google says there is no limit on how long a meta description can be, and that it shortens the display to fit the device width. It says it only sometimes uses the meta description as the snippet, when that describes the page better than the page text. Google's page does not say that the tag affects ranking.

How to confirm the problem

curl
curl -s https://example.com/your-page | grep -i -o '<meta[^>]*name="description"[^>]*>'

No output, or content="", is the problem. Two lines mean the page has duplicate tags. Remove one.

How to fix it

Write one description per page. State what the reader gets in the first words, and do not repeat the title. Do not reuse one description across many pages.

HTML
<head>
  <meta name="description" content="Add a meta description of 50 to 160 characters so search and AI engines have a plain summary of the page.">
</head>
  • Next.js: export metadata with a description. Next.js prints the meta tag (docs updated 2026-08-19).
  • WordPress: WordPress does not print meta tags by default. Add the tag in your theme, or use a plugin that adds a description field to each post and page.
  • Shopify: open Online Store, Pages, select the page, then Edit website SEO, and fill in Description. For the home page, use Online Store, Preferences. Shopify suggests about 160 characters.
  • Single page apps: set the tag on the server or at build time. A tag added by a script is missing for crawlers that skip JavaScript.
Next.js
// app/pricing/page.tsx
export const metadata = {
  title: "Pricing",
  description: "Compare plans, see what each one includes and start with a free scan.",
};

How to verify the fix

  1. Run the curl command. It must print one tag with 50 to 160 characters.
  2. Check that no two pages share the same description.
  3. Run the SeenLens scan and confirm the check passes.

Run the free SeenLens scan on your page

When can you ignore it?

A Warn for a length slightly outside the range is low risk if the text is clear. Google writes its own snippet from the page text in most cases. A page with strong opening text loses little without the tag, but a good tag is still the cheapest way to control the summary.

Sources