Rule: description-length
Google displays roughly 155-160 characters of your meta description in desktop search results (less on mobile). Descriptions that exceed this are truncated mid-sentence. Descriptions that are too short waste the available SERP real estate. This rule, at weight 8/100, enforces a comfortable range that ensures your complete message shows in search results.
What it checks
Indxel measures the character count of the meta description's content attribute after trimming whitespace from both ends. The count includes all visible characters, spaces, punctuation, and special characters. If description-present fails (no description), this rule is skipped automatically.
Thresholds
120-160 characters (inclusive)
70-119 characters — too short, not using full SERP space
161-200 characters — slightly long, may be truncated
Less than 70 characters — too short to be useful
More than 200 characters — heavily truncated, wasted effort
Edge cases
Mobile search results show fewer characters (~120) than desktop (~160). A 155-character description shows fully on desktop but may be truncated on mobile. Target 120-155 for universal safety.
Google sometimes extends the displayed description if the search query matches words at the end. You cannot rely on this behavior.
Descriptions that include HTML entities (&, —) are counted by their rendered length, not source length. '&' renders as '&' (1 character).
If your description is exactly at a boundary (e.g., 70 or 160 chars), it falls into the PASS or WARN range per the inclusive boundaries defined above.
Configuration
// indxel.config.ts
import { defineSEO } from "indxel";
export default defineSEO({
rules: {
"description-length": true, // enabled by default
},
});
// description-length thresholds are fixed.
// For custom thresholds, use the SDK's validateMetadata() API
// and implement your own length check.Frequently asked questions
Is 120 characters too short for a meta description?
120 characters is the lower bound of the pass range. It's enough for a concise, impactful description. Below 120, you're leaving SERP real estate on the table. Some pages (like tool pages) work fine at 120 chars; blog posts benefit from closer to 155.
Why is the error threshold at 200 and not 160?
Descriptions between 161-200 chars are slightly long but still partially useful — Google shows the first ~160 characters. Above 200, the extra text is never displayed and the effort is wasted. The warning range (161-200) is a softer nudge; the error range (>200) signals a clear problem.