An eligible page has no share description

Why it matters

The Open Graph protocol, used for link previews, defines og:description as a one to two sentence description of the page, among the optional properties it generally recommends.

What to do

1. Look at the finding: it shows the page and the Open Graph tags we found in its head.
2. Add <meta property="og:description" content="…"> to the page's <head>, in one or two sentences.
3. If your site builder or SEO plugin has a social description field, fill it there.

When to leave it as it is: if the page is never shared, such as a login or thank-you page, you can leave it.

What we read

We read the <head> of each crawled page as served, without running JavaScript. A page is judged when it answered 200 with HTML, is indexable, with no noindex and no canonical to another address, and its head was read in full; pages over 2 MiB, or with more than one <head>, are marked as not checked.

A page is reported when its head has no og:description. Only <meta property="…"> tags inside <head> count, and one with an empty content still counts as present. A tag written as name="og:…", or placed after </head>, is not counted, and a page without a <head> tag is read as having none.

Example & evidence

Illustrative example — one page head, not a live audit.

https://bakery.example/cakes/ has in its head:

<meta property="og:title" content="Cakes">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://bakery.example/img/cakes.jpg">

There is no og:description, so the page is reported.

<meta property="og:description" content="Cakes baked to order, from birthdays to weddings.">

A possible correction: add a short description to the head.

Confirm & check again

Check for yourself: view the page source and search the <head> for og:description.

Check again: Full audit — run a new site audit. The prior finding can close when a complete check of the same page finds og:description, or establishes that the page is no longer eligible, for example because it is noindex or names another page as canonical. It can also close when the original URL has a confirmed permanent redirect within the site or serves a complete 200 non-HTML response. A direct 404 or 410, or an unreadable response, does not by itself confirm a fix; the prior finding remains unresolved.

Limits & sources

The check sees whether the tag is present, not what it says or how any site shows it. It reads the HTML served to our crawler, which a site may serve differently to preview services, and does not run JavaScript.

Confidence: High because the page head is read directly.

Sources

• ogp.me, The Open Graph protocol — defines og:description as a one to two sentence description, among the optional properties it generally recommends. Checked 28 September 2026.

Editorial review: 29 September 2026

Related

• An eligible page has no share title — the page has no share title.
• An eligible page has no root og:image tag — the page lacks a root og:image declaration.