How to Fix Missing Meta Descriptions

A meta description is the short summary of a page that often appears under its title in Google. Missing meta descriptions don't stop a page ranking, but they hand control of that summary to Google, and the text it picks is often not the text that makes people click.

What is a meta description?

It's a line of HTML in the <head> of a page:

<meta name="description" content="Handmade oak dining tables, made to order in Yorkshire. Free delivery in the UK and a 10-year guarantee." />

Visitors never see it on the page itself. Its job is to appear in search results and in previews when the page is shared, as a sales pitch for the click.

Does a meta description help rankings?

Not directly. Google has said it doesn't use meta descriptions as a ranking signal. What it does affect is how many people click. A clear, relevant description can win clicks from results that rank above you, and more visits from the same position is the whole point of SEO.

Google also bolds words in the description that match the search, which makes a well-written one stand out even more.

What happens when it's missing

When a page has no meta description, Google builds a snippet from text on the page. Sometimes that works. Often you get:

• a cookie notice or navigation text,
• a sentence cut off halfway,
• the same generic text on several pages.

Social networks and messaging apps fall back in similar ways, so shared links can look messy too.

How to find missing meta descriptions

Run an audit and look for Meta Description: Missing in the issues list. FormedEasy lists every page affected, so you can work through them in order of importance. You can run a free audit here.

While you're there, check the related issues:

• Meta Description: Duplicate: several pages share the same description.
• Meta Description: Over 155 Characters: likely to be cut off in results.
• Meta Description: Below 70 Characters: too short to say much.
• Meta Description: Multiple: a page has more than one, often added by both a theme and a plugin.

How to add one

WordPress

Install an SEO plugin if you don't have one. Each page and post then gets a meta description box below the editor. You can also set a default pattern for archive pages.

Shopify, Squarespace and Wix

Look for SEO settings or search engine listing on each page, product and collection. Products are the easiest to miss, so check a few after you've finished.

A custom website

Add the tag to the template's <head> and fill it from each page's data, for example a summary field in your CMS. If a page has no summary, leave the tag out rather than repeating the same text everywhere, since duplicates are an issue of their own.

How to write a good meta description

1. Keep it to roughly 120–155 characters. Long enough to be useful, short enough not to be cut off.
2. Describe this page, not your whole business. Every description should be unique.
3. Answer the search. Say what the visitor will find or be able to do.
4. Use the main phrase naturally. Matching words are shown in bold.
5. Give a reason to click. Free delivery, a price, a time saving, a guarantee.

Google may still rewrite a description if it thinks other text matches a search better. That's normal, and a good description is still the version it uses most often. Google's guide to controlling snippets explains how it chooses.

Where to start if you have hundreds

Don't try to write them all in one go. Start with the pages that matter most: the home page, your main services or categories, and your best-selling products. Then work through the rest a batch at a time.

After each batch, run your audit again. The number of pages under Meta Description: Missing should fall, and your score should rise with it.