DEV: Add site description to crawler homepage view

In some cases, Google crawlers don't output the meta description but rather they output the first bit of text in the UI. Sometimes that is a mix of table headings, topic titles and excerpts, which don't reflect the site's mission. Adding the description to the homepage header might help.
discourse · SamSaffron · May 21, 2025 · May 21, 2025 · May 21, 2025 · May 21, 2025
commit 535bd8fd43c2bc5dba80f3f7d28e4084ee9b00a3
diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ def use_crawler_layout?
             CrawlerDetection.crawler?(request.user_agent, request.headers["HTTP_VIA"])
         )
   end
+  helper_method :use_crawler_layout?
 
   def perform_refresh_session
     refresh_session(current_user) unless @readonly_mode

diff --git a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
@@ -288,6 +288,9 @@ def description_content
     )
   end
 
+  def is_crawler_homepage?
+    request.path == "/" && use_crawler_layout?
+  end
   # Creates open graph and twitter card meta data
   def crawlable_meta_data(opts = nil)
     opts ||= {}

diff --git a/app/views/layouts/_noscript_header.html.erb b/app/views/layouts/_noscript_header.html.erb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 <header>
-  <a href="<%= path "/" %>">
-    <%=SiteSetting.title%>
-  </a>
+  <a href="<%= path "/" %>"><%=SiteSetting.title%></a>
+  <% if is_crawler_homepage? %>
+    <p><%= SiteSetting.site_description %></p>
+  <% end %>
 </header>
diff --git a/spec/requests/home_page_controller_spec.rb b/spec/requests/home_page_controller_spec.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
 RSpec.describe HomePageController do
-  describe "#custom" do
+  describe "homepage" do
     context "with crawler view" do
+      before do
+        SiteSetting.site_description = "This is a test description"
+        SiteSetting.has_login_hint = false
+      end
+
       it "should display the menu by default" do
         get "/custom", headers: { "HTTP_USER_AGENT" => "Googlebot" }
 
@@ -43,6 +48,20 @@ def enabled?
           DiscoursePluginRegistry.reset!
         end
       end
+
+      it "should display the site description on the homepage" do
+        get "/", headers: { "HTTP_USER_AGENT" => "Googlebot" }
+
+        expect(response.status).to eq(200)
+        expect(response.body).to include("This is a test description")
+      end
+
+      it "should not display the site description on another route" do
+        get "/top", headers: { "HTTP_USER_AGENT" => "Googlebot" }
+
+        expect(response.status).to eq(200)
+        expect(response.body).to include("This is a test description")
+      end
     end
   end
 end