Google shows the wrong (or cut-off) description for your business
Search your own business name and read the grey text under the link. That is your meta description — and if you never set one, Google is improvising it from whatever it finds on your page.
We've seen it end mid-sentence ('…you won'), and we've seen it assembled from a services list so it reads like a ransom note. Either way, your first impression is being written by a robot.
Why it costs you customers
The description is the one bit of your search listing you control like ad copy. It does not change your ranking much, but it changes whether people click you or the listing below you.
Too long and Google truncates it around 160 characters; missing and Google scrapes something; both make a careful business look careless at the exact moment someone is choosing.
Check it in 30 seconds
Google your business name and read the snippet critically: is it your pitch, or a robot's collage?
Our free check reads the tag directly and measures its length.
How to fix it
One or two sentences, under 160 characters, saying what you do, where, and why you: "Family-run Byron Bay cafe — big breakfasts, house-roasted coffee, dog-friendly courtyard. Open 7 days from 7am." Plain and specific wins.
WordPress: the Yoast/RankMath snippet box. Wix/Squarespace: page settings → SEO. Hand-built: <meta name="description" content="…"> in the <head>.
Homepage first, then your menu/services and contact pages — each gets its own sentence, not a copy of the homepage one.
Write the description before you fiddle with anything else on SEO. It's the highest-leverage 160 characters on your site: five minutes of writing, shown to every single person who ever searches you.