The description line is missing

The title is set, the headings are tidy, and the description tag is simply gone.

The description line is missing, an illustrative diagram

Where the description shows up

In a search result, the summary line under the title comes from the meta description. It does not move rankings on its own, but a well-written one earns more clicks. Skip it and the engine invents a snippet from whatever text it finds on the page, which reads fine now and then and often does not.

Writing your own snippet

Think of it as a short ad. You get roughly 70 to 160 characters to say what the page offers and why someone should tap it. Give every page its own copy; otherwise two of your results can wear one identical snippet. Do not stuff the line with keywords. Search engines mostly ignore a stuffed description anyway.