What is a meta description?

A meta description is a line of code in your page holding a short summary. Google often shows it under your link in the results. It is not on the page itself, and a visitor who is already on your site will never see it.

What it does and does not do

It does not affect ranking. Google has said so plainly for years. What it affects is whether somebody taps your result instead of the one above it, which matters just as much when you are sitting third.

Google also reserves the right to write its own snippet from the page if it thinks that answers the search better, which it explains in its guide to snippets. Write a good one anyway, because it is used often enough to be worth the five minutes.

A worked example

A drainage firm had the same description on all eleven of its pages: quality drainage services, competitive prices, call today. It said nothing, and it said the same nothing eleven times.

The replacement for its Wakefield page read: blocked drains cleared in Wakefield, Ossett and Horbury, usually same day. CCTV surveys, no call out charge, ring for a price. Same firm, same service, but now the line names the towns, the timescale and the offer, which is what a person scanning a results page is actually looking for.

Writing one

Around 150 characters is a safe length, because longer gets cut off on a phone. One description per page, never repeated. Name the service, name the place, and give one concrete reason to tap. Write it for the person, not for the search engine.

Common questions