Writing guide
How to write a meta description
A meta description is the smallest piece of copy a site ships and the only advertising most pages will ever run: about 160 characters under a blue link, competing against nine other results for one click. It does not affect rankings — Google has been explicit about that since 2009 — but it moves click-through rate, and click-through is the difference between ranking fourth and mattering.
There is a complication the how-tos usually skip: Google rewrites meta descriptions in roughly two out of three searches, swapping your carefully made sentence for a fragment pulled off the page. The rewrites are not random. They happen when your description fails to match the query the searcher actually typed — so the craft is not just writing a good line, it is writing the line Google has no reason to replace.
That reframes the job usefully. A meta description is ad copy written under two constraints: a hard character budget, and an editor — Google — who overrides you the moment you drift off-query. The working formula below survives both: mirror the search term, answer directly, load one number, end on a verb, and audit what actually shows up in the results.
What it is
A meta description is the summary a page declares in its meta name="description" tag, which search engines may display as the grey snippet under the title in results. It carries no direct ranking weight; its entire job is persuading a searcher to choose your result over the nine around it.
When to use it
Hand-write one for every page that earns or targets search traffic — the homepage, product and category pages, and your top posts; in practice the 20 to 50 URLs that draw most of your clicks. Do not hand-write thousands for near-identical pages — a template with variables (name, price, count) is the right tool there — and do not write them at all for pages tagged noindex; effort spent on those is billed to nothing.
The structure that works
The query mirror
Google bolds words in the snippet that match the search, and bolded words catch the scanning eye. A description that ignores the query forfeits the bolding — and invites the rewrite.
- Place the primary query, or a close variant, in the first half of the description.
- Mirror the searcher’s vocabulary, not your internal jargon — “running shoes”, not “performance footwear”.
- One query per page; a description chasing three queries mirrors none of them.
The direct answer or the concrete offer
Informational searchers click the result that visibly has the answer; commercial searchers click the one that names the goods. Vague promises lose to either.
- For informational pages, compress the page’s actual answer: “Running shoes last 300 to 500 miles” beats “Learn how long shoes last”.
- For commercial pages, state what is on the page: the products, the price floor, the guarantee.
- Giving the answer away does not kill the click — it wins the reader who wants the detail behind it.
One number
A digit in a wall of grey snippet text is a pattern break; the eye snags on it. Numbers also carry the specificity that separates a real page from a content-farm one.
- One number is the target: a price, a count, a timeframe, a year, a percentage.
- Use a number the page actually supports; the snippet is a promise the page must keep.
- Digits beat words — “128 designs” scans, “over a hundred designs” does not.
The verb close
The description ends at the moment of choice, so its last beat should point forward — what the click gets, phrased as an action.
- End with a short verb phrase: “See the collection”, “Compare all 12 plans”, “Start the free trial”.
- Match the verb to intent — “see” and “learn” for informational, “get” and “start” for transactional.
- Skip the spam register (“Click here now”); a plain verb with an object is enough.
The character budget
Google truncates by pixel width — roughly 155 to 160 characters on desktop and nearer 120 on mobile. Everything after the cut may as well not exist.
- Write to about 150 to 155 characters, and never park the payoff at the end.
- Front-load so the first 120 characters work alone — that is the whole mobile snippet.
- An ellipsis mid-promise is the worst outcome: the reader sees the setup and the cut, never the point.
Step by step
- 01
Start from the query, not from the page
Write down the primary query the page targets and the two or three variants real searchers use — autocomplete and the “People also ask” box surface them in a minute. The description gets drafted from that list, because query words in the description get bolded in the results, and because matching the query is the main defense against being rewritten.
Then read the live results for the query before writing. Note what the top snippets promise and what they miss; your description competes against those nine exact strings, not against an abstract standard. A gap you can fill — the number none of them give, the plainer answer — is your click-through angle.
- 02
Compress the page’s answer into one sentence
For an informational page, write the answer, not the invitation: “Running shoes last 300 to 500 miles — about 4 to 6 months at 20 miles a week” outperforms “We discuss the factors that affect shoe lifespan.” Searchers click the result that demonstrably has the answer, and answer-shaped descriptions are also the ones Google tends to keep, because they already match what it wants to show.
For a commercial page, the equivalent is the concrete offer: what is on the page, at what price point, with which differentiator — “128 wallets from $45, 10-year repair guarantee.” The description is a shop window, and a shop window shows goods, not a welcome mat.
- 03
Add the one number the page can defend
Pull the most clickworthy figure the page actually supports — a price, a count, a duration, a percentage, a year — and write it in digits. In a results page of ten grey lines, digits are where the eye stops; they signal that the page contains specifics rather than filler.
One or two numbers is the working limit. A description that reads “17 tips, 9 tools, 5 mistakes, 2024” has crossed from specific into spammy, and spam-shaped snippets depress clicks as reliably as vague ones.
- 04
Close on a verb and check the register
End with a plain verb phrase that names what the click delivers: “See the collection”, “Compare all 12 plans”, “Get the checklist.” It converts the description from a summary into an instruction, and because you placed it by design, it survives your own truncation planning rather than living in leftover space.
Then check the register: no exclamation marks, no “click here”, no all-caps, no emoji. Google strips or rewrites the ad-spam register and searchers discount it; the tone that wins is a good shop assistant’s — informed, direct, calm.
- 05
Cut to 155 characters and front-load to 120
Draft loose, then cut to roughly 150 to 155 characters — under the desktop pixel limit with margin. Cut in this order: adverbs, brand boilerplate (“Welcome to…”), anything the title tag already says. The title and description read as one two-line ad, so duplicating the title wastes half the budget.
Now check character 120. On mobile the snippet often ends near there, so the query mirror, the answer and the number must all sit before it. The verb close can live in the desktop-only tail; the promise cannot.
- 06
Make every description unique — by hand or by template
Duplicate descriptions across pages are among the most common triggers for Google ignoring the tag entirely, and Search Console flags them for a reason. Hand-write the 20 to 50 URLs that earn most of your traffic; for programmatic pages, build one strong template with real variables — “{count} {category} from {min_price}, updated {month}” — so every page renders distinct and true.
While you are in there, delete the site-wide default some CMSs ship — the company mission statement repeated on 400 URLs. A blank description, which Google fills from page text, beats a duplicated one.
- 07
Audit what Google actually shows, then adapt
Two to four weeks after shipping, search your target queries and compare the live snippet against what you wrote — site:yourdomain.com plus the query makes this quick. Expect some rewrites regardless: large studies put Google’s rewrite rate around 60 to 70 percent of results, so the audit is about your money pages, not about perfection.
Treat each rewrite as feedback: the text Google chose instead — often your first paragraph — is what it considered the best match for the query. Either fold that language into a new description or accept the choice and spend the effort on the next page. Where your version does show, watch CTR in Search Console; a snippet change that lifts clicks is a lesson worth copying.
Before and after: what good looks like
Before
Three descriptions as they shipped: “Welcome to Cedar & Line. We offer a wide range of high-quality handcrafted leather goods for every occasion, made with passion and attention to detail. Browse our collection today.” — “In this post we will discuss the many different factors that can affect how long your running shoes last and share some helpful tips.” — “Acme Payroll | Home. Acme Payroll provides innovative payroll solutions for businesses of all sizes. Learn more about what we can do for you.”
After
The same three, rebuilt: “Full-grain leather wallets, belts and bags, hand-stitched in Oregon — 128 designs from $45, each with a 10-year repair guarantee. See the collection.” — “Running shoes last 300 to 500 miles — about 4 to 6 months at 20 miles a week. How to read the four wear signs and stretch every pair further.” — “Run payroll in 5 minutes for a flat $39 a month. Acme files taxes in all 50 states automatically. See pricing and start a 30-day free trial.”
Each rewrite runs the same four moves: mirror the query (“leather wallets”, “running shoes last”, “payroll”), answer or offer directly, carry at least one digit, and close on a verb — all inside roughly 150 characters with the substance in the first 120. Note what disappeared: “Welcome to”, “in this post we will discuss”, “solutions for businesses of all sizes” — none of it survives contact with a results page. The running-shoes line also shows the counterintuitive move: giving the answer away is what earns the click for the detail behind it.
Mistakes that sink a meta description
| Mistake | The fix |
|---|---|
| Letting the CMS auto-fill the description from the first paragraph | Hand-write the pages that earn your traffic. Auto-fill usually truncates mid-sentence, and a snippet that trails off reads as neglect. |
| Describing the site instead of answering the query — “Welcome to…” | Open with the query mirror and the answer or offer. The searcher asked a question; the welcome mat is a non-answer wearing brand voice. |
| Stuffing keywords until it stops being a sentence | Write one plain sentence containing the query once. Google bolds matched words either way, and a keyword list earns exactly the rewrite you were trying to avoid. |
| One description duplicated across dozens of pages | Unique by hand for money pages, unique by template for programmatic ones. Duplicates are a standing invitation for Google to ignore the tag site-wide. |
| Overrunning the limit so the promise gets truncated | Cut to roughly 155 characters and put the query, answer and number inside the first 120. Whatever follows the ellipsis does not exist. |
| Promising what the page does not deliver | Every number and claim in the snippet must be visible on the page. The click a false description wins costs an immediate bounce — and searchers remember the domain that burned them. |
Pre-publish checklist
- The primary query, or a close variant, appears in the first half of the description.
- The description answers or offers — it does not announce that the page “discusses” something.
- At least one number appears in digit form, and the page supports it.
- It ends with a verb phrase naming what the click delivers.
- Total length is 155 characters or fewer.
- The first 120 characters stand alone as a complete mobile snippet.
- It does not repeat the title tag’s words — the pair reads as one two-line ad.
- It is unique across the site; no other URL carries the same string.
- No exclamation marks, no “click here”, no all-caps, no emoji.
- Every claim in it is verifiably on the page.
- Two to four weeks after shipping, the live snippet was checked against what you wrote.
Free tools for this work
Check your meta description before it ships.
Frequently asked questions
- How long should a meta description be?
- Write to 150 to 155 characters and make the first 120 self-sufficient. Google truncates by pixel width — roughly 155 to 160 characters on desktop and nearer 120 on mobile — so the budget is really two budgets, and the mobile one is the one that bites.
- Do meta descriptions affect Google rankings?
- No — Google confirmed in 2009 that the meta description is not a ranking signal, and that has not changed. It affects click-through rate, which is why it is still worth writing: at the same position, the better snippet takes a measurably larger share of the ten available clicks.
- Why does Google rewrite my meta descriptions?
- Because it judged your text a worse match for the specific query than something on your page — large crawls put the rewrite rate around 60 to 70 percent of results. You cannot prevent it entirely; you reduce it by mirroring the query, answering directly, and keeping one description per distinct intent.
- Does every page need a hand-written meta description?
- No. Hand-write the 20 to 50 URLs that earn most of your search clicks, template the programmatic rest with real variables, and leave true low-value pages blank — Google composes a query-matched snippet from page text, which beats a duplicated site-wide default.
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