In plain English
It's the blurb on the back of a book. It doesn't change what's inside, but it decides whether someone picks the book up.
Used in a sentence
“Each service page has its own meta description, written to make someone searching click through.”
“Google was showing a random sentence from our footer as the description, because we'd never written one.”
In detail
The meta description sits in a page's code, not on the page itself. Search engines may show it as the snippet under your title, though Google sometimes writes its own from the page's text if it thinks that matches the search better. A good description is roughly a sentence or two, describes what the page offers and gives a reason to click.
Meta descriptions don't directly affect rankings, but they affect how many people click your result, and clicks are the point. Every important page should have its own, unique description rather than a shared one or none at all.
Why it matters for your business
A clear, specific description can win the click even when you're not the top result.
- Sells the click in search results
- Unique for every important page
- Written for people, not for search engines
Easy to mix up
The meta description isn't the title tag. The title is the blue headline in results and matters for ranking; the description is the text beneath it and matters for clicks.
Related terms
Title tag, SERP and Keyword. Or browse the whole glossary.
