Checks
Meta description length
Checks that each meta description is between 70 and 160 characters, long enough to be substantive but short enough to avoid being cut off in results.
What this check looks for
For pages that already have a meta description, this check measures its character length. Under 70 characters warns as too short to carry a full summary; over 160 characters warns as likely to be truncated. The 70-160 character band passes. Pages with no description at all report "na" here — that's the presence check's job.
Why it matters
Search engines typically display up to roughly 155-160 characters of a description before truncating with an ellipsis, so text beyond that limit gets cut mid-sentence and can end on an awkward or misleading fragment. A description under 70 characters usually reads as thin or generic and leaves persuasive room on the table that a competitor's fuller snippet will claim instead. AI systems summarizing your page for a chat answer use the same text as a quick, high-trust summary, so a description sized to read completely — not truncated mid-thought — gives the model a cleaner sentence to work from.
How to fix it
Expand or trim the description to land in range:
<!-- Too short (34 chars) -->
<meta name="description" content="Shop our headphones today.">
<!-- Better (127 chars) -->
<meta name="description" content="Shop Acme's wireless noise-cancelling headphones — 40-hour battery, adaptive ANC, and free shipping on every order.">Lead with the concrete benefit or product detail, and read the final rendered length rather than trusting a CMS field's character counter alone.
See how your site scores on this check