Meta description

The meta description is set via <meta name='description' content='...'> in the HTML head. It doesn't directly influence rankings (Google has confirmed this repeatedly), but it influences click-through rate from the SERP — which indirectly affects rankings via dwell-time and behavioral signals.

Length: 150–160 characters is the sweet spot. Google truncates at roughly 155 characters on desktop, 120 on mobile. Descriptions over 160 characters get cut mid-sentence; descriptions under 100 leave SERP space unused (less for the snippet to compete with adjacent listings).

Good meta descriptions: state the page's value proposition concretely, include the primary keyword once (Google bolds matching terms in the SERP), and end with a soft CTA ('learn more', 'see how', 'compare'). Generic descriptions ('Welcome to our website') waste the slot.

Google increasingly rewrites meta descriptions based on the query — particularly for long-tail queries where the meta doesn't match the searcher's intent. Studies in 2024 found Google rewriting ~60% of meta descriptions on long-tail queries. The lesson: write the meta to optimize the highest-volume use case; Google will adapt for niche queries.

Common mistakes: missing meta description entirely (Google generates one from the page content, often badly), duplicate descriptions across pages (signals templated, low-effort content), keyword-stuffed descriptions (under-converts and reads as spam), and descriptions that don't match the page content (Google ignores them, the listing reverts to extracted snippet).