Inconsistencies with Meta Description Templates

I’m looking for clarification on whether or not Yoast SEO adds a meta description to each page or not.

We’ve noticed that with the meta description template blank:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/spa/bj9fcafy1gmkecl/xr39icip.png

The description in the snippet editor on a page auto populates:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/spa/bj9fcafy1gmkecl/j7_thls2.png

Yet in the page source of the site we get a message that says there is no meta description:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/spa/bj9fcafy1gmkecl/8lbacen3.png

Conversely:

If the meta description template is set to %%excerpt%%:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/spa/bj9fcafy1gmkecl/7gumcjjf.png

The snippet editor on pages says that you need to rpovide a meta description by editing the snippet instead of what the excerpt actually is:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/spa/bj9fcafy1gmkecl/i4wk7-ch.png

But it *does* appear to add the meta description to the page source:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/spa/bj9fcafy1gmkecl/9vfu1ykz.png

So my question is: If you leave the meta description blank, does it actually not give you any description SEO value at all even though the code snippet makes it seem like there will be a description?

Thanks in advance!

• This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by kalsch.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by kalsch.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by kalsch.