Strange problem with meta description

Hi,

Upon checking that specific category archive page, we can confirm that it doesn’t have a meta description tag output.

If you were to edit that specific category and go to the Yoast SEO meta box, can you check if there is any input in the meta description field? Is it showing the same template as what you’ve set under SEO > Search Appearance or is it showing as blank?

If you were to manually set a meta description for this category and save the changes, does it then show up accordingly in the page source?

Hello Michael,

There is input as expected and set like the template…

If I set it manually indeed it shows up! But only if I use a completely different template/text… strange?

It seems it has something to do with the variable (term title) because when I remove that and type in manually the term it is ok????

The Website Development archive page of Dirk Beckers, a hobby wildlife and nature photographer.

@dirkbeckersbe

Meta description notice is expected if Yoast SEO has nothing to output despite the template variable exists in the Meta description field.

If you use relevant category specific template variable like %%category_description%% as listed here in SEO > Search Appearance >> Taxonomies(tab) >>> Categories meta description field, it would get rid the meta description notice from the page source. Please note, for that you should have the individual term (category) description for the variable to output the meta description on the page source. Else, by default, you would need to manually edit each terms and add the category description or specific meta description.

I manually changed the meta description and all is ok now. But it doesn’t explain why I need to do this only for 1 category? Is this a bug?

It makes no sense…

@dirkbeckersbe Can you please confirm whether the issue is restricted to when using the %%term_title%% variable, or whether using the %%category_description%% variable also outputs a description?

Both %%term_title%% and %%category_description%% outputs nothing!

Makes no sense because the other categories use the %%term_title%% and have no problems at all…

Hi,

It’s definitely strange that the %%term_title%% and %%category_description%% variables aren’t outputting for just that 1 category archive page, even though the rest are working as intended, and you’ve set up the meta description template under SEO > Search Appearance.

As a workaround, please do just set the meta description for that category archive so that it will output it properly.

Due to the nature of the issue, we’ll need to take a closer look at your setup. However, we are unable to do it here as this is a public forum.

So, if you have an active Yoast SEO Premium subscription or if you can consider buying one, we can investigate the issue further directly on your setup privately through email.

Thanks for your understanding!

We are going ahead and marking this issue as resolved due to inactivity. If you require any further assistance please create a new issue.