Meta description length : Inaccurate count

[qcybb]

Please give us a description of what happened

When entering in a meta description, the addon is not accurately counting the meta description length.

To Reproduce

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Enter in a 149 character meta description

Expected results

1. Nothing

Actual results

1. Meta description length: The meta description is over 156 characters. To ensure the entire description will be visible, you should reduce the length

Technical info

• If relevant, which editor is affected (or editors):
• Classic Editor

Used versions

• PHP version: 8.2.23
• WordPress version: 6.6.2
• WordPress Theme: Custom
• Yoast SEO version: 23.5

[josevarghese]

Hi @qcybb

Thanks for using the Yoast SEO plugin and for creating the issue.

The meta descriptions are between 150 and 170 characters, and Google truncates the ones that exceed this length. We suggest keeping the length to 156 characters maximum. However, that maximum length for our plugin analysis also includes the date (which can be added to the search results by Google). For example, "May 21, 2024 - " adds 15 more characters to the meta description. This is because Google doesn't follow the previous rules and shows the date whenever it wants to inform the users that the page/post was published recently. In a previous version, we had added the Date and separator to the meta description field to inform this, but we reverted it as it confused some users.

[qcybb]

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you.