Meta Description Over 160 Characters
What This Means
This page's meta description exceeds 160 characters. The description exists, is correctly placed, and is not a duplicate — but it is longer than the snippet length most search engines will display in full.
Why It Matters for SEO
Search engines truncate meta descriptions that exceed their display threshold, cutting the text mid-sentence and appending an ellipsis ("…"). The exact cutoff varies by engine, layout, and device — but descriptions above 160 characters are consistently at risk of truncation on desktop, and even more so on mobile where snippet space is narrower.
When a description is truncated, your intended message may be cut off before searchers read the most important part — including any call to action. Front-loading key information helps, but the most reliable approach is to keep the description within the safe range so it displays fully.
Note that search engines measure snippet length in pixels rather than characters (see the Below 400 Pixels Wide and Over 985 Pixels Wide checks for the pixel-based equivalents). The 160-character guideline is a practical approximation based on average character widths in the standard SERP font.
What the Platform Checks
The platform measures the character count of the content attribute value (whitespace-trimmed) on the first valid <meta name="description"> tag inside <head>. This check fires when the count exceeds 160 characters. Severity is Notice.
How to Fix It
Trim the description to approximately 120–160 characters. Follow these principles:
- Front-load the key message. Put the most important information — what the page is about and why to click — in the first 120 characters. This ensures it survives truncation even in narrower layouts.
- Cut filler phrases. Remove qualifiers like "In this article, we'll explore…" or "Welcome to our guide on…" — get straight to the value.
- End cleanly. Aim for the description to complete a thought naturally at or before the character limit, so if it does get truncated at a later point it still reads well.
- Use a snippet preview tool. Before publishing, verify how the description renders in a SERP preview — several free tools simulate Google's snippet display, including pixel-width rendering.
Find every long descriptionacross your entire site
Run a full technical audit and get a list of every page with a meta description over 160 characters, with current lengths and affected URLs.