Meta description too short in Joomla

A meta description of a few words tells searchers very little, and search engines are more likely to replace it with a snippet of their own.

Why Joomla sites get it

Short descriptions are usually placeholders: a few words typed in to fill the field, a category name, or a description written when the article was a stub. Descriptions taken automatically from a very short intro text end up short as well.

Fix it by hand

1. Open the article and go to the Publishing tab.
2. Expand the Meta Description to between about 70 and 160 characters: what the page covers and who it is for.
3. Save.

Fix it with MetaGen

MetaGen counts descriptions under 70 characters as too short. The Meta description too short row shows how many there are, and Fix regenerates them longer from the article’s own content, recording each change under Articles changed.

MetaGen is free for Joomla 5 and 6. See all the SEO warnings MetaGen checks.