A meta description that is too short

The page has a description, but it is too short to do much work.

Why short snippets underperform

The meta description is the short sales pitch under the title in a search result. A tiny description leaves most of that space blank, so the page says less than the results around it. Search engines may also decide the tag is not useful and pull text from the page instead, which can produce a choppy or irrelevant snippet.

What enough detail looks like

A useful description names the page, explains what someone will get, and gives a reason to click. It does not need to be long, but it needs enough room to be specific. Around 70 to 160 characters is usually enough to summarize the page without drifting into a paragraph.