Write meta descriptions people want to click

The meta description is the short text under your title in the search results. Many pages leave it empty, or fill it with a line nobody would choose to click. This lesson gives you a formula, three rewrites, and a plan for the times Google shows different text.

What a meta description is, and is not

A meta description is a summary of a page in one or two sentences. You write it in the page's HTML. Visitors do not see it on the page itself. Search engines may show it under the title on the results page.

The meta description is not a ranking factor. Adding more keywords to it will not move your page up.

What it does affect is the click. Two results can sit next to each other, and the one with the clearer description often gets chosen. So think of the description as ad copy: a small ad for your page that costs nothing to run.

It works as a pair with the title above it. The title names the topic, and the description gives the reason to click. If you have not written the title yet, start with how to write title tags that get clicked.

On length: descriptions are typically cut at around 150 to 160 characters on desktop, and often sooner on phones. Treat that as a guideline, not a rule, and put the most important part in the first sentence.

Write the description as if you were paying for every character.

A formula: what, for whom, why click

A description that works usually answers three questions.

1. What does the page give? Name the thing: a guide, a price list, a product, a booking form.
2. Who is it for? Beginners, shop owners, people in one city, people with one particular problem.
3. Why click this one? Give a concrete detail: a number, a price, what is included, how long it takes, a guarantee.

Two sentences are usually enough: the first says what the page gives, the second says who it is for and adds the detail. The rewrites below show how that looks.

A few habits help:

• Start with a verb or a benefit, not with "Welcome to" or your company name.
• Use the words your reader would search. Words that match the search are often shown in bold, which makes your result easier to spot.
• Use your keyword once, naturally. Repeating it does nothing for rankings and makes the text harder to read.
• Do not promise what the page does not have.

Three rewrites

A blog post

The first version could describe any post on any site. The second tells the reader exactly what they will be able to do after reading.

A product page

A list of keywords is not a sentence, and it gives no reason to choose you. The rewrite answers the questions a shopper has before clicking: will it fit, and what happens if it does not.

A service page

"Leading" and "high quality" are claims every company makes. The rewrite names the problem, the place, and two promises a customer can check.

The HTML, and why Google shows other text

The description lives in the head of the page, next to the title:

<head>
  <title>Men's Waterproof Hiking Boots, Wide Fit | Northtrail</title>
  <meta name="description" content="Waterproof men's hiking boots in a wide fit, sizes 7 to 14. Free returns for 30 days and a two-year guarantee on the sole.">
</head>

In most site builders it is a field called "Meta description" or "SEO description", so you rarely touch the code.

Now the part that surprises people. Google often ignores the description you wrote and builds its own snippet from text on the page. It tends to do this when a passage on the page matches the search more closely than your description does. This is normal. It is not a penalty, and it does not mean your description was wrong.

Here is what to do about it:

• Write one anyway. For your most important pages, your description is still shown often enough to be worth ten minutes of work.
• Describe the page accurately. Google is more likely to use a description that fits the page and what people are looking for. That second part is called search intent, and I explain it in search intent in plain language.
• Make the opening paragraph of the page a good summary. If Google pulls text from the page, that text should also earn the click.
• Do not copy one description onto every page. If I cannot write a unique one for a page, I leave it empty and let Google choose.

Next in the On-Page SEO series, I move from the search result to the page itself, with a heading structure checklist.

Check your own page

Pick one page that matters and read its description as a stranger would:

• Does the first sentence say what the page gives?
• Is it clear who the page is for?
• Is there one concrete reason to click, such as a number, a price or a guarantee?
• Is it different from the description on your other pages?
• Does the important part fit in roughly 150 characters?

Check the title that sits above it with the title length checker, then run the free audit to see what else on the page needs attention.