Meta Description Checker
Validate meta descriptions across your entire site from the terminal. Checks length, detects duplicates, and finds missing descriptions — one command, every page.
$ npx indxel check https://yoursite.com
Crawling 56 pages...
PASS meta description present (52/56)
WARN 4 pages missing meta description
PASS description length 120-160 chars (49/52)
WARN /pricing description too short (87 chars)
WARN /features description too long (189 chars)
FAIL duplicate description on /blog and /news
Score: 85/100 (B) — 1 error, 3 warnings
The description length sweet spot
Indxel flags descriptions outside the 120-160 character range. Aim for 140-155 characters for the best results across desktop and mobile.
What gets checked
Comprehensive meta description validation for every page on your site.
Length Validation
Flags descriptions under 120 or over 160 characters. Google truncates long descriptions and ignores short ones.
Duplicate Detection
Finds pages sharing the same description. Duplicate descriptions confuse search engines about which page to rank.
Missing Descriptions
Catches pages with no meta description at all. Google auto-generates one, but it rarely matches your intent.
SERP Preview
See exactly how your description appears in search results. Identify truncation before it happens.
Per-Page Report
Every page gets its own status. You see exactly which URLs need attention, not just a summary.
Actionable Output
No vague advice. Get the exact character count, the offending URL, and what needs to change.
How it works
Run the check
Indxel crawls your site and extracts the meta description from every page.
Review the report
See which pages have missing, too short, too long, or duplicate descriptions.
Guard your pipeline
Add --ci so deploys fail when description issues are introduced.
Guard descriptions in CI
Catch description regressions on every pull request. Never deploy a page with a 300-character description again.
- name: Check meta descriptions
run: npx indxel check --ci
env:
INDXEL_URL: ${{ secrets.SITE_URL }}Check your meta descriptions now
Run this in your terminal — no signup, no API key.
Want to learn more about meta descriptions? Read the complete meta description guide
Frequently asked questions
What is the ideal meta description length?
Google typically displays 120-160 characters in search results on desktop, and around 120 on mobile. Indxel flags descriptions outside this range. Aim for 140-155 characters for the best coverage across devices.
Why are duplicate meta descriptions a problem?
Duplicate descriptions signal to search engines that pages are similar or identical, which can dilute rankings. Each page should have a unique description that accurately reflects its specific content.
What happens if a page has no meta description?
Google auto-generates a snippet from the page content. This often results in awkward or irrelevant text in search results. Writing your own description gives you control over what searchers see.
Does Indxel check descriptions across the whole site?
Yes. Indxel crawls all discoverable pages from your URL and validates every meta description. It catches duplicates across pages that manual checking would miss, especially on sites with hundreds of pages.
Can I run this on a staging environment?
Yes. Pass any accessible URL to the check command. This works well with Vercel preview deployments — validate descriptions before merging to production.