The meta description isn't a reason to click

Why it matters

The description is the only sentence you get to write in a search result. It is advertising copy with a character limit, and it is usually either the first paragraph of the page or a list of keywords — neither of which gives anybody a reason to choose you over the nine other results.

meta.description-length can tell you it will be cut short. Only reading it can tell you it says nothing. That is what this asks a model: does this sentence give a person a reason to click, in the page's own terms?

It is an opinion and it is labelled as one. Google rewrites descriptions more often than it uses them, so this is about the ones it does use, and about the click rather than the ranking.

How to fix it

The suggestion beside the finding is the model's rewrite. What tends to work: say what the page gives them, in their words, and stop before 155 characters.

<meta
    name="description"
    content="Hand-iced wedding cakes made in Leeds, delivered and set up across West Yorkshire. Tasting appointments on Saturday mornings."
/>

Examples

These are the rule's own test pages, and what it says about each. They are run on every change to the rule book.

<meta name="description" content="cakes, wedding cakes, leeds cakes, cake shop, bakery, cake maker, birthday cakes">

aiReview: {"model":"Claude","description":{"ok":false,"comment":"The description is a list of keywords and gives nobody a reason to click","suggestion":"Hand-iced wedding cakes made in Leeds, delivered and set up across West Yorkshire."}}

WarningThe description is a list of keywords and gives nobody a reason to click (Claude's opinion, not a rule.)

fail-keywords

<meta name="description" content="Hand-iced wedding cakes made in Leeds, delivered across West Yorkshire.">

aiReview: {"model":"Claude","description":{"ok":true,"comment":"It says what you get and where"}}

PassedThe description gives someone a reason to click: Claude agrees.

pass-a-reason