How to Fix a Missing Meta Description

The fix, step by step

1. 1

   Find the pages with no description

   Crawl the site and filter for empty meta descriptions. Sort the result by traffic. Pages that already get clicks are where the click-through-rate impact shows up first when you fix them — fix those before the long-tail pages.

2. 2

   Custom-write descriptions on high-value pages

   Templated descriptions (the same line on 200 pages with a slug substituted in) get rewritten by Google more often than not. Custom-write the top pages. For long-tail pages, a templated description is fine — Google's rewrite is the fallback.

3. 3

   Hit 150–160 characters

   Under 120 leaves SERP real estate empty. Over 160 truncates mid-sentence. Aim for 155. Lead with the value prop (a number, a deliverable, a guarantee), mention the keyword once, finish with a hook to click.

4. 4

   Don't repeat the title

   The title and description show together in the search result. Repeating the title wastes the second line. Use the description to answer "why click this result?" — the title already said what the page is about.

Want the pass-fail split for this check? See the full per-check page →