HTML Guides for description
Learn how to identify and fix common HTML validation errors flagged by the W3C Validator — so your pages are standards-compliant and render correctly across every browser. Also check our Accessibility Guides.
The <meta name="description"> element provides a brief summary of a page’s content. According to the WHATWG HTML living standard, there must be no more than one <meta> element per document where the name attribute has the value "description". This is a conformance requirement — not just a best practice — meaning that including duplicates produces invalid HTML.
Why this matters
Standards compliance: The HTML specification explicitly states that certain metadata names, including "description", must be unique within a document. Violating this makes your HTML non-conforming.
Search engine behavior: Search engines like Google use the meta description to generate snippet text in search results. When multiple description meta tags are present, search engines must decide which one to use — or may ignore them entirely and pull text from the page body instead. This can result in a less relevant or less compelling snippet, potentially reducing click-through rates.
Maintainability: Duplicate meta descriptions often arise from template conflicts — for example, a CMS injecting one description while a theme or plugin adds another. Having duplicates makes it unclear which description is actually intended, creating confusion for developers maintaining the code.
Common causes
- A CMS or static site generator automatically inserts a <meta name="description"> tag, while the template or theme also hardcodes one.
- Multiple HTML partials or includes each contribute their own description meta tag to the <head>.
- Copy-paste errors when building or editing the <head> section.
How to fix it
- Search your HTML source for all instances of <meta name="description".
- Decide which description best represents the page’s content.
- Remove all duplicate instances, keeping only one.
- If your content comes from templates or includes, trace where each tag is generated and ensure only one source outputs the description.
Examples
❌ Invalid: duplicate description meta tags
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>About Us</title>
<meta name="description" content="Learn about our company and mission.">
<meta name="description" content="We are a team of passionate developers.">
</head>
<body>
<h1>About Us</h1>
<p>Welcome to our about page.</p>
</body>
</html>The validator will report an error because two <meta> elements share name="description".
✅ Valid: single description meta tag
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>About Us</title>
<meta name="description" content="Learn about our company, mission, and the team of passionate developers behind it.">
</head>
<body>
<h1>About Us</h1>
<p>Welcome to our about page.</p>
</body>
</html>Here, the two descriptions have been merged into a single, more comprehensive meta description. Alternatively, you could simply keep whichever original description was more accurate and discard the other.
❌ Invalid: duplicates from mixed sources (common template issue)
<head>
<title>Blog Post</title>
<!-- Injected by CMS -->
<meta name="description" content="Auto-generated summary of the blog post.">
<!-- Hardcoded in theme template -->
<meta name="description" content="A blog about web development tips and tricks.">
<meta name="author" content="Jane Smith">
</head>✅ Valid: single source of truth
<head>
<title>Blog Post</title>
<!-- Injected by CMS (theme duplicate removed) -->
<meta name="description" content="Auto-generated summary of the blog post.">
<meta name="author" content="Jane Smith">
</head>When fixing template-driven duplicates, decide which system should own the description — typically the CMS, since it can generate page-specific descriptions — and remove the hardcoded one from the theme.
Make sure your final <meta name="description"> content is meaningful, concise (typically 150–160 characters), and accurately reflects what visitors will find on the page.
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