Meta description under 70 characters
What it is
The meta description, the content of <meta name="description">, is shorter than 70 characters. A description that short tends to name the page (“Our pricing plans”, “Latest news”) without saying what the reader will get from it.
Why it matters
Google uses the meta description for the snippet when it describes the page better than text taken from the page, and its own examples mark a too-short description as one to improve. A thin description is less likely to be chosen, and when it is, it gives searchers little reason to pick your result over the next one.
How Asky checks it
Asky reads the first <meta name="description"> in the page’s raw HTML (one added by JavaScript is not seen), trims whitespace at both ends of its content and counts the characters. A description of 1 to 69 characters is reported; 70 or more passes. Seventy is a rule of thumb for a description with room to inform, not a minimum any search engine sets. An empty description is reported as meta description missing or empty instead.
Reported as an opportunity with low severity.
How to fix it
- Say what the page offers, for whom, and one concrete detail such as a price, a number, a place or a free trial.
- Aim for 70 to 140 characters. From 141 characters a description is reported as over 985 pixels, and past 155 as over 155 characters.
- Write it for this page only; a site-wide default repeated on every page describes none of them.
- To leave it as it is: for a utility page such as a login or cart page, where a longer pitch adds nothing, mark the issue resolved.
Example
The description of https://example.com/pricing at 18 characters, then rewritten at 114:
<!-- Before: 18 characters -->
<meta name="description" content="Our pricing plans.">
<!-- After: 114 characters -->
<meta name="description" content="Compare plans for marketing teams and agencies, with monthly or yearly billing, volume discounts and a free trial.">