Meta Description

What is a Meta Description?

The meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about. It can appear below the page title on social media networks and on search results pages (SERPs).

Here’s how it looks in the HTML code of the page:
<meta name="description" content="Content Explorer helps copywriters and content marketers find the most shared and ‘linked-to’ content. Explore the best ideas for your new content.">

And here’s the page description shown in the search snippet on Google:

Google interprets the meta description tag as a summary of the page’s contents and therefore uses it to understand better what the page is about. Not so long ago, the text from the meta description tag was always shown as a search snippet, but these days Google only shows the hardcoded description only 37% of the time, according to our study.

Here’s how Google puts it:

Google will sometimes use the <meta name=“description”> tag from a page to generate a snippet in search results, if we think it gives users a more accurate description than would be possible purely from the on-page content.

The meta description can also be displayed when a link is shared on a social media platform, in lieu of a network-specific description like og:description.

Why is meta description important?

A meta description is important because it provides search engines with context about the page, helping them rank it for relevant search queries. And when the meta description you hardcode is displayed in the SERP, it can help with CTR because users can better understand more about the page contents before they click.

The meta description will also be pulled when a link is shared on social media, helping users understand what the page is about.

SEO best practices for meta descriptions

1. Make sure every page on your site has a description

Because the meta description helps provide context about your webpage to search engines and users, it’s best practice to have one for every page. You can use Ahrefs Site Audit (or the free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) to check and monitor that each of your pages has a meta description.

2. Make it match the search intent

When trying to rank for a keyword, we always recommend writing content that will match the search intent. Is the user looking to buy something, to answer a question, to get more information, or to navigate to a site? 

The same rule applies to writing your meta descriptions; you want to make sure it matches what users are looking for to increase the chances of them clicking through to your site.

To match your meta description to the search intent, we recommend searching for your keyword and analyzing the SERP. Then write a meta description based on what Google shows in the snippets.

3. Keep it short

If your meta description is too long, Google will likely truncate or rewrite it and potentially leave out crucial information from your snippet. These days, the optimal meta description length is 160 characters (120 for mobile).

4. Focus on quality

Meta descriptions are equally important for user experience as they are for SEO. Click-baity or keyword-stuffed meta descriptions are less likely to appear in snippets than descriptions that provide context and match the user’s search intent. Make sure each description for your website is unique as well.

We recommend you check these best practices for creating quality meta descriptions from Google.

FAQs

What is the optimal meta description length?

For SERP snippets, the optimal meta description length is 160 characters max for desktop and 120 for mobile.

How often does Google rewrite meta descriptions?

We analyzed hardcoded meta descriptions with the actual Google desktop snippets for 20,000 keywords and found that Google rewrites hardcoded meta descriptions 63% of the time.