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Meta description is present

ab-002528 · site-health-check.seo-discoverability.meta-description
Severity: highactive

Why it matters

Without a meta description, Google synthesizes a snippet from scraped page text — usually the first paragraph or a nav fragment — which rarely matches searcher intent and costs measurable click-through rate. A present but default-placeholder description like "Web site created using create-react-app" is worse: it broadcasts that nobody finished the site, which users read as a trust signal before they click. Findability depends on controlling that snippet.

Severity rationale

High because the description drives CTR on every search impression and defaults broadcast abandonment.

Remediation

Write a 120-155 character description that names the page's value proposition and a concrete call-to-action. Add it to the document head directly, or in Next.js App Router export it from the route:

// app/page.tsx
export const metadata = {
  description: 'Specific summary of what this page offers, in 120-155 characters.',
};

Detection

  • ID: site-health-check.seo-discoverability.meta-description

  • Severity: high

  • What to look for: Count the number of <meta name="description"> tags in the HTML. Extract the content attribute value and measure its character length. Check against known placeholder patterns: "Web site created using create-react-app", "A Next.js app", "Generated by create next app".

  • Pass criteria: At least 1 <meta name="description"> tag exists with a content attribute containing meaningful text between 50 and 160 characters (inclusive). The description must not match known framework default placeholders. Report the actual character count.

  • Fail criteria: No <meta name="description"> tag found, content attribute is missing or empty, character count is outside the 50-160 range, or matches a known default placeholder.

  • Skip (N/A) when: The response Content-Type is not HTML (e.g., JSON API, XML feed, plain text).

  • Error when: SPA detected.

  • Detail on fail: "No meta description tag found" or "Meta description is 12 characters — too short for search results"

  • Remediation: The meta description appears as the snippet below your title in search results. Without it, search engines auto-generate one (often poorly). Add it to your <head>:

    <meta name="description" content="A concise summary of your page in 50-160 characters.">

    In Next.js App Router: export const metadata = { description: 'Your summary here' }. Keep it between 120-155 characters for optimal display in Google results.

Taxons

findability

History