What is a meta description?

Meta descriptions are a small but visible part of how web pages appear in search results — the short text beneath a page title in a search engine listing. Many founders either ignore them or treat them as a box to fill without understanding what they are for. Understanding what a meta description does, what it should contain, and what it does not do helps founders write them more effectively.

A meta description is a short piece of text that summarises the content of a web page. It may appear in search results beneath the page title and URL, giving searchers a preview of what the page contains before they click — though Google rewrites meta descriptions the majority of the time, using its own snippet drawn from the page body. Meta descriptions do not directly influence search rankings, but they significantly affect click-through rate — when Google does display your authored description, a well-written one matching what the searcher is looking for will generate more clicks than a vague or generic alternative.

Writing effective meta descriptions means leading with the key benefit or answer the page provides, matching the intent of the searches you want to attract, and staying within roughly 150–155 characters to reduce the risk of truncation on desktop (mobile displays fewer). Each page should have a unique, purposefully written description. Our guide to on-page SEO covers meta descriptions alongside the other elements that affect how pages perform in search.