Are your page descriptions missing or too long?
It checks whether descriptions exist and fit the engine's display-width range.
What Check Engine measures
The check trims surrounding spaces from descriptions on pages intended for search. Empty descriptions produce a medium finding. Display width below 70 half-width character units produces a low short-description finding. Width above 165 half-width character units produces a low long-description finding. Widths at the limits pass. The engine counts wide and fullwidth Unicode characters twice and all other characters once. For example, a description with measured display width exactly 165 half-width character units stays within the long-description limit.
The check reads each page's meta description. It does not compare descriptions for duplication or ask a search service which snippet it displayed. Review those questions separately.
How to read the result
Missing descriptions are medium. Short and long ones are low. The thresholds are the engine's review limits, not a promise that a search service displays an exact number of characters or uses your description unchanged.
Why it matters
A description is a short account of a particular page. Presence and width checks can expose an empty or unwieldy summary, while the wording still needs a person to decide whether it accurately describes the destination.
How to fix it
Write a concise, specific summary of what the page gives a visitor. Remove template filler and keep the useful point early. Review pages with the shortest and longest values before applying a shared fix. Do not pad a clear summary merely to hit a number or promise content the page does not contain.
How to write meta descriptions
What we found in field audits
Problems in On-page SEO were found on 14 of the 14 sites we audited. These are area totals. Read the field-audit method.
Method note
backend/seo_engine/checks/onpage.py, descriptions, revision 0bb8e8d3.
Common questions
What counts as a short meta description?
A description is short under 70 half-width character units. Wide and fullwidth characters count twice, and other characters once.
Is a description width of 165 units too long?
No. At 165 half-width character units, the value passes. This approximates text width without measuring pixels.
Is a missing meta description worse than a long one?
Yes. Missing descriptions are medium, while long descriptions are low. Review the actual summary as well as its width.