Importance of Limiting Meta Description Length to Under 160 Characters: Search Optimization and SEO Audit
This guide diagnoses the issue of Meta Descriptions being truncated or replaced by arbitrary text and provides SEO standards for optimizing length to under 160 characters to improve CTR and search visibility stability.
To ensure effective search optimization, we will explore how to limit Meta Descriptions to under 160 characters. Solve length issues occurring in Bing and Google search engines and monitor your search visibility status.
The Role of Meta Description in SEO and the Severity of Length Issues
When search engine crawlers display a description after crawling a page, content that is too long gets truncated, while content that is too short results in unnecessary text being added, negatively impacting search optimization. These length issues can directly harm a website's search visibility status.
If a Meta Description is written too long, it will be cut off in the search results page. Conversely, if it is too short, search engines may pull irrelevant text from the body to fill the gap, which is detrimental to search optimization. This leads to a decrease in Click-Through Rate (CTR) and acts as a negative signal in overall search engine evaluation.
Generally, search engines display description information between 25 and 160 characters. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the description to under 160 characters to optimize user experience and clarify search visibility.
Analysis of Meta Description Length and SEO Impact
| Length Status | Impact on SEO and Ranking | Main Issues | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Too Short ( 25 chars) | Negative impact as search engines add arbitrary text. | Lower CTR due to irrelevant text exposure. | Expand to over 50 characters including core keywords. |
| Too Long ( 160 chars) | Disadvantageous as important info is truncated. | Loss of context and reduced readability. | Summarize to within 150160 characters. |
| Optimal (150160 chars) | Maintains clear search visibility, maximizes CTR. | None | Maintain and manage. |
Step 2: How to Use a Script to Limit Meta Description to Under 160 Characters
While Meta Description length issues in Bing can be easily fixed on standard websites, platforms like Tistory have limitations in modifying server-side code. Below is a simple script that, while not a fundamental server-side fix, removes the existing description upon rendering and modifies it to limit the character count to under 150.
Since this method dynamically modifies Meta tags on the client side, the changes may only be reflected if search engine crawlers fully execute JavaScript. If you want to fix the length issue of the final output, you can use the code below.
Correction Code for Meta Descriptions (150-Character Limit Script)
The code below updates the description tags and even the JSON-LD. Insert it right before the /body tag in your Tistory skin.
script async
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
var metaDescription = document.querySelector('meta[name="description"]');
var ogDescription = document.querySelector('meta[property="og:description"]');
var twitterDescription = document.querySelector('meta[name="twitter:description"]');
var jsonLdScript = document.querySelector('script[type="application/ld+json"]');
// Initialize meta description with a limit of 150 characters
var initialContent = metaDescription ? metaDescription.getAttribute('content') : '';
var limitedContent = initialContent.substring(0, 150);
// Set the limited content to the meta tags
if (metaDescription) {
metaDescription.setAttribute('content', limitedContent);
}
if (ogDescription) {
ogDescription.setAttribute('content', limitedContent);
}
if (twitterDescription) {
twitterDescription.setAttribute('content', limitedContent);
}
// Get the content from p class="summary"
var summaryParagraph = document.querySelector('p.summary');
var content = summaryParagraph ? summaryParagraph.textContent.trim() : '';
// Update meta descriptions if summary content exists
if (content) {
var updatedContent = content.substring(0, 150);
if (metaDescription) {
metaDescription.setAttribute('content', updatedContent);
}
if (ogDescription) {
ogDescription.setAttribute('content', updatedContent);
}
if (twitterDescription) {
twitterDescription.setAttribute('content', updatedContent);
}
if (jsonLdScript) {
try {
var jsonLdData = JSON.parse(jsonLdScript.textContent);
jsonLdData.description = updatedContent;
jsonLdScript.textContent = JSON.stringify(jsonLdData, null, 2);
} catch (e) {
console.error('Error parsing JSON-LD:', e);
}
}
}
});
/scriptQ1. Does limiting the Meta Description to under 160 characters improve rankings?
A. While Meta Description is not a direct ranking factor, an appropriate length ensures it isn't cut off. This increases the CTR, which indirectly sends positive signals to search engines regarding your site's relevance and quality.
Q2. Why does Google use body text instead of my set Meta Description?
A. Google may choose to display a snippet from your body text if it believes it better matches the user's search intent. This often happens if the original description is too long, too short, or lacks the specific long-tail keywords searched by the user.
Q3. Is modifying Meta Descriptions with client-side JavaScript effective for SEO?
A. Ideally, modifications should be made server-side. However, since modern crawlers like Googlebot can process JavaScript, this acts as a viable alternative for platforms where server-side access is restricted, helping to fix how your snippets appear in search results.
Meta Description Length Control is a Requirement for Search Optimization
Limiting Meta Description length to under 160 characters and delivering core information clearly is a fundamental step in search optimization. It builds user trust, increases CTR, and improves search engine evaluations. Optimize your website's search visibility through proper length management.