Writing meta descriptions that match the page

The meta description is a suggestion for the snippet shown under your title in search results. It does not influence rankings, but it can influence whether someone chooses your result.

What Google does with it

Google decides what to show for each query. It may use your description, or it may build a snippet from text on the page that better matches what was searched. That means a good description is one that accurately summarises the page, not one stuffed with keywords.

A simple method

1. Write down the single question the page answers.
2. Answer it in one or two sentences (roughly 70 to 160 characters is a practical range, but lengths are cut by pixel width, not characters).
3. Put the most useful words first.
4. Make it unique for this page. If you have thousands of pages, write unique descriptions for the important ones and let templates handle the rest.

Check your work

Use the Meta Description Length Checker to see which lines may truncate, and the Bulk Meta Description Analyzer to find missing or duplicated descriptions across a section of your site. Treat the numbers as guidance: they are estimates.