Glossary
What is Meta description?
A meta description is a short summary of a page in its HTML. Search engines often show it under the title, and a good one earns more clicks.
Updated
The meta description is a <meta name="description"> tag containing a one- or two-sentence summary of the page. Search engines often use it as the snippet under the title in results.
It doesn't directly rank a page
It isn't a ranking factor on its own. Its value is persuading someone to click, which is why it still matters.
Writing one
- Aim for about 155 characters, or about 920 pixels on desktop; roughly 120 on mobile. Longer ones are cut off.
- Say what the reader gets, and include the search term naturally, because matched words are shown in bold.
- Write it for a person, with a reason to click, not a list of keywords.
- Make each one unique.
Search engines often write their own snippet from the page text when it matches the query better, so don't be surprised to see yours replaced.
Check yours
Use the free SERP snippet preview or the meta tag generator.
Related
- Title tagThe title tag is the HTML title of a page. It is the clickable headline in search results and a strong signal of what the page is about.
- SERP snippet previewSee how your title and meta description will look in Google on desktop and mobile, and whether either gets cut off.
- Click-through rate (CTR)Click-through rate is the share of people who see your result in search and click it: clicks divided by impressions.