Hello Mitsubishi,
Thanks for reaching out regarding your meta description length. We would like to let you know that when you update the content of the meta description if the color of the bar is orange, that means it might be too short. If the color of the bar is green, then that means it is at the optimal length. If the color of the bar is red, then that means that your meta description is too long and might be cut off when displayed on the search results. The recommended meta description length is between 120 and 155 characters so the problem here might actually be that the message is too long.
We have a detailed guide on creating the right meta description here: https://yoast.com/meta-descriptions/
Hello,
Thanks for your reply.
I have been working with your plugin for a long time and I am very familiar with the lengths of the various descriptions.
When we fill in the description we try it is in the norms from 120 to 155 characters.
Before updating the plugin, everything was ok, ie the symbols are 155 anyway and it showed green. After the update, it changed color to red and showed that the content is long but it is actually 155 characters. This happened after the update. Before this update, everything was ok and it normally considered these 155 characters to be within normal limits.
I think something in the update makes this a problem.
Greetings
Thanks for the feedback, Mitsubishi.
Can you share the meta description you used here so we can check on a test site? We look forward to hearing from you.
Hello,
How can I send a photo to visualize the problem?
Sure, that would be best. Do feel free to share a screenshot or a quick video that describes the issue you’re having. How to include screenshots or videos?
Hello,
Regarding the meta description, which gave an error after the update, released on 05.10.2021, I am sending a screenshot of an existing meta description on one of our sites. I hope that although it is in Bulgarian, you will be able to see that the total number of characters (letters, spaces, punctuation marks) in the meta description is below 156 or more precisely the characters in the meta description are 153.
Before the update, released on 05.10.2021, the meta description showed that everything was fine, namely within the required number of characters. However, after the update, released on 05.10.2021, it showed that the meta description exceeds 156 characters, and as you can count, the characters (letters + spaces + punctuation) are 153.
In my opinion, the problem that occurred after the update from 05.10.2021 is that the system takes into account the date that can be seen in the photo, as part of the symbols in the meta description. You can see that this date was not set manually by us in the meta description field. This date appears automatically when a page is created on the site.
I did a test: the number of characters on the date is 12. When I shorten the existing text in the meta description field by exactly 12 characters, it shows me that the characters are already below 156. Therefore, the problem with the update released on 05.10.2021 is that the system takes into account the date that automatically appears when creating a page on the site, as part of the number of characters in the meta description, which is incorrect.
I really hope that this problem will be fixed with the next update, because we are a company that deals with the development of sites and online stores and for each site and online store we do SEO optimization using yoast.
Please answer and solve the problem.
Regards,
View post on imgur.com
Thanks for sharing all the relevant information here with us. By default, Yoast SEO now includes the date automatically in the snippet preview and as such, the meta description takes a bit of fewer characters than before.
It was changed because Google automatically shows the date in a snippet preview in the search results as well. Since the snippet preview in Yoast SEO is a preview of how Google shows an item in the search results, we have decided to include the date in the snippet preview as well.
That said, Google sometimes shows more than 156 characters; sometimes even shows a lot less. So, you can use the Yoast SEO snippet preview as an indication but not the exact preview of how Google will show the relevant page in the search results.
Hello,
Thanks for your reply.
What I read I do not like because it means that I will have to redesign most of our sites to reduce this content because of the date and if later Google decided to put a location or something else then the meta description will remain very short which further limits us.
What would happen if I didn’t change the length of the meta description and it stayed that long, that is, would it harm the SEO optimization and would it push the site down in the search results?
Thank you
@mitsubishi Thanks for your reply.
Regarding your question, if you didn’t change the meta description it’s possible it could adversely affect the ranking of the page. Unfortunately, your question is a bit outside the scope of the support we provide. Giving SEO advice, in most cases, requires a deep analysis of your site to provide accurate advice for your specific setup, even for what may seem to be a simple question.
At Yoast, we want to help people improve their site and to make SEO attainable for everyone. So we offer Yoast Academy courses which are included in our Yoast SEO Premium subscription, several great plugins, and a comprehensive SEO blog.
We understand that not everyone has the interest or time to learn SEO. Our main advice at this point would be to check for a local SEO company and see if they can help out. If you are using a web development agency, you could ask them, as most agencies have at least a basic understanding of SEO as well – the good ones do.
We are going ahead and marking this issue as resolved due to inactivity. If you require any further assistance please create a new issue.
