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What happens if I leave the meta description empty?

It will not stop your page appearing in results, but the search engine will choose some text from the page to put under the title, and that could be navigation, a shipping notice or a line that explains nothing. The tool warns you when the description is empty and writes only the title tag. Writing your own gives you a say in what appears, though engines may still pick other text sometimes.

Published · 3 min read

What you see in the tool

In the Search snippet preview we entered the title Oud Oil and the page URL and left the description empty. Three things happened:

  • A message appeared: No description was entered, so no description tag is generated and search engines will choose text from the page.
  • On both preview cards, the description spot shows a faded line: No description: search engines will choose text from the page.
  • The ready tags shrank to a single line, the title tag:

<title>Oud Oil</title>

The tool does not generate an empty description tag, because a tag with no content does nothing useful and can confuse whoever reads the page code later. The description line in the Lengths panel reads No description.

Where the engine's text comes from

When an engine finds no description, or one that does not fit the search, it takes a piece of the page text it considers suitable. On a carefully written product page that can work out. But many shop pages open with generic text: free shipping over a certain amount, category names from the menu, or a cookie notice. None of that persuades anyone to click.

Is there a time to leave it empty?

Some site owners leave the description empty on long, varied pages, such as an article answering many questions, because the engine may pick the best passage for each search. That is a valid choice, but on product pages, where the text is short and the templates repeat, it usually gives a weaker result.

Writing a description in two minutes

  1. Say what the product is in one sentence: Original Cambodian oud oil in sizes from 3 to 12 ml.
  2. Add a true reason to buy from you: delivery, returns or gift wrapping.
  3. Watch the desktop and mobile statuses, and make sure the first sentence stands on its own.
  4. Check that the missing-description message has gone and the tags now run to two lines.
  5. Copy the tags into your page, or copy the description text into your store platform's description field.

If you have dozens of pages with no description, start with the most important: the home page, then categories, then your best sellers. For drafting descriptions in a document before moving them over, the Word and character counter gives word and character counts; the width you see here. And remember that the description is not a ranking factor in itself, and the tool does not promise it will show as written.

Common questions

Will the engine penalise my page for having no description?

The tool makes no promises or warnings about ranking. No description simply means the engine chooses the text itself.

Does the tool write a description from my page automatically?

No. It does not open your URL or read your page. You write the description.