Extractability 3 min read  ·  Updated October 2026

Describe the document in metadata

No meta description was detected in the response head.

maintains Let The Bots In, a technical AI-readiness scanner and reference site.

What does this finding mean?

The report identifies this check as missing-meta-description in Extractability. The category carries up to 14 of the 100 rubric points. This is a category weight, not an automatic deduction for this finding. Read the scan detail for the measured state, overlapping signals and any score cap.

Write a concise route-specific description that states what a reader can learn or do here.

Why does this matter for AI retrieval?

A descriptive title and headings give a passage context when a retrieval system splits a document into sections. Direct answers need less surrounding text to make sense. None of these formats guarantees that an engine will cite the page.

How do I check and resolve it?

  1. Inspect the head in the HTTP response. Check shared layout defaults and route overrides so each route gets its own metadata.
  2. Write a title and description that name the page subject. Set one absolute canonical URL for the preferred public document.
  3. Remove conflicting tags from duplicate plugins or layouts. Query parameters used for a tool state should not create a new canonical document.

Adapt the example to the reported issue and the actual route. Placeholder names, URLs and dates must be replaced with facts from your site.

<head>
  <title>AI crawler access guide | Example</title>
  <meta name="description" content="Configure search crawler access and test the exact robots.txt rule for a public URL." />
  <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/guide/" />
</head>

Verify the result

Fetch the exact route with and without query parameters. Confirm one intended title, description and canonical in the initial HTML.

Open the related tool or technical guide, then run a new scan of the affected URL. Keep unknown checks marked unknown until you have a complete response.

Copy a prompt for your coding agent

Paste this into Codex, Claude Code or Cursor from your own repository. Include the scan's exact URL and detail so the agent can verify the observation.

Investigate the scanner finding "Describe the document in metadata" (missing-meta-description) in this repository.
Observation: No meta description was detected in the response head.
Required change: Write a concise route-specific description that states what a reader can learn or do here.
Inspect the existing route, shared layouts and configuration first. Confirm the finding against the actual response before editing. Preserve intentional access restrictions, existing content and unrelated changes. Use only factual identity and date values. Make the smallest appropriate fix, verify the deployed HTML or resource response and run the relevant project checks. Explain any measurement that remains unknown. Do not promise search rankings or AI citations.
Reference: https://letthebots.in/fixes/missing-meta-description/

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