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Generate accurate, unique meta descriptions #864

Description

@LukasWallrich

Why this needs addressing

The shared head template hard-cuts every description with printf "%.254s", which can split words. The audit also found generic fallback descriptions repeated across author and tag pages. The live author page /authors/kimberly-quinn/ currently uses the site-wide description and is marked noindex, follow.

Google does not require a fixed meta-description length; it recommends accurate, page-specific, useful descriptions and truncates snippets as needed. The issue is therefore duplication and poor generation, not the number 254 by itself.

Relevant implementation: layouts/partials/site_head.html.

Requested change

  • Generate unique, human-readable descriptions for glossary terms, curated resources, author profiles, and tag archives from their actual content/metadata.
  • When a fallback truncation is needed, truncate on a word boundary and treat the target as a presentation heuristic, not an SEO rule.
  • Escape entities exactly once so literal “-style output is not emitted.
  • Keep deliberate noindex behaviour for genuinely empty taxonomies/profiles, but do not use the generic site description as their page description.

Acceptance criteria

  • Representative descriptions are page-specific, valid HTML attributes, and do not end mid-word.
  • Duplicate-description counts for author/tag/resource samples are reduced or explicitly justified.
  • Non-English descriptions render the intended characters once.
  • Add a build-time check for missing or unintentionally duplicated descriptions on indexable pages.

Reference: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet

Activity

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