forrtproject / forrtproject/forrtproject.github.io

Generate accurate, unique meta descriptions

Open
#864 1 comment 0 reactions 1 assignee Claimed by @richarddushime View on GitHub
enhancement needs-expert-review new website
Dominant language
HTML
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42
Forks
33
Avg merge
2d 6h
Merged PRs (30d)
19

Description

## 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

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