Rankelle

More than one meta description

The page declares several meta descriptions. Only one can appear under the search result, and which one is picked is up to the search engine.

How to fix it

Keep one. An SEO plugin and a theme both adding their own is the usual cause.

When it is not a problem

If both descriptions are identical the damage is nil and the finding is cosmetic. When they differ, the one shown may be the one you would not have chosen.

How Rankelle handles it

  • SeverityWarning. It costs traffic or clarity without stopping anything, which is where most real work lives.
  • DetectionDetected on a single page while crawling it, then grouped with the other pages under the same URL pattern.
  • GroupingEvery page with this finding under the same URL pattern becomes one cause, with a confidence taken from how much of the pattern is affected. 400 of 400 is a template; 6 of 14 is phrased as a question. Causes are ranked by the impressions behind their pages.
  • LandingThe affected URLs stay under cheap watch. When this finding is gone from all of them, the fix is marked landed without anyone reporting the deploy.
  • VerdictAt landing, comparable untouched URLs are frozen as a control set. Twenty-eight days later the two are compared, and the fix can come back as having done nothing — all four verdicts reach the report.

Try it on your own site, free

The whole audit of every website you add, no card and no expiry. Pay only when you want the proof.