Rule: og-description
The og:description appears as the subtitle text under your link title in social shares. Without it, platforms either use your meta description or auto-extract a paragraph from your page — usually the wrong one. At weight 4/100, this is a quick win for social click-through rates.
What it checks
Indxel checks for a <meta property="og:description" content="..."> tag in the HTML head. Passes if the tag exists with non-empty content. Does not validate length, quality, or whether it differs from the meta description.
Thresholds
og:description meta tag exists with non-empty content
og:description is missing or empty
Edge cases
Some platforms truncate og:description more aggressively than others. Slack shows very little; Facebook shows more. Keep it under 100 characters for universal readability.
If your meta description and og:description are identical, you're not losing SEO points, but you're missing a chance to optimize for social context. Meta descriptions are search-optimized; og:descriptions should be social-optimized.
In Next.js, openGraph.description in your metadata export generates this tag. Without it, Next.js does not automatically copy the top-level description to og:description.
Configuration
// indxel.config.ts
import { defineSEO } from "indxel";
export default defineSEO({
rules: {
"og-description": true, // enabled by default
},
});
// Set a social-specific description:
export const metadata = {
description: "Full-featured SEO validation CLI for Next.js...", // search
openGraph: {
description: "Catch broken SEO before it ships.", // social (shorter)
},
};Frequently asked questions
How long should og:description be?
Under 100 characters is ideal for universal compatibility. Slack and messaging apps show the least; Facebook and LinkedIn show the most. A short, punchy description performs better than a long one that gets truncated.
Is og:description the same as meta description?
They serve different audiences. Meta description targets search engine snippets (120-160 chars, keyword-rich). og:description targets social previews (shorter, conversational, benefit-focused). Setting both independently gives you optimal results on both channels.