Meta descriptions: not a ranking factor, still worth money

What a meta description actually does

The <meta name="description"> content is a candidate for the gray snippet under your blue link in the results. When it shows, it's your one paragraph to convince a searcher that this result — not the three around it — answers their question. Click-through rate is the currency; rankings are only the auction.

Google frequently substitutes its own snippet (pulled from page text) when it thinks that serves the query better — especially when your description is missing, duplicated, or vague. You can't control the substitution; you can only make your version the better choice.

Sizing: 70–160 characters

Under ~70 characters usually means you haven't said anything yet; past ~160 the snippet gets cut off mid-sentence on desktop (mobile can be even tighter). Aim for one to two complete sentences that survive truncation: front-load the substance so a chopped-off ending loses style, not meaning.

Writing them like ads (because they are)

• Answer the query's intent. A pricing page's description should mention actual prices; a how-to should promise the steps. Match what the searcher wants to know next.
• Include the topic phrase naturally — matching query words appear bolded in the snippet, which draws the eye. That's the real "SEO effect" of a description.
• Say something concrete. Numbers, specifics, and plain claims ("from $0", "five steps, ten minutes") outperform adjectives ("innovative", "leading").
• One description per page, unique. Duplicated descriptions across templates are the most common finding in our audits — and each one is a wasted pitch.
• End with a reason to click, not a sales bark. "Includes a worked example" beats "Click here now!".

Triage for a whole site

1. Crawl and classify: missing, duplicate, too short, too long. Fix templates before pages — a product template with a generated description clears hundreds of findings at once.
2. Hand-write the pages that earn it: home, pricing, features, comparisons, and your top organic entry pages. These are the descriptions that face real competition on real queries.
3. Let honest generation cover the tail: for large archives, a generated sentence built from real page facts (title + category + date) is better than nothing and better than a duplicate.
4. Re-check after Google settles: if the SERP still shows a substituted snippet for a page you care about, your description likely doesn't match the dominant query intent — rewrite toward what the snippet shows people want.