What is Meta Description?
A meta description is an HTML element that provides a brief summary of a web page's content. It appears below the title in search engine results and influences click-through rates, though it's not a direct ranking factor.
Best practices: - Length: 120-160 characters (Google truncates longer descriptions) - Include the primary keyword naturally - Write a compelling call to action ('Learn how...', 'Discover why...') - Unique for every page (no duplicates) - Accurately describe the page content - Include a value proposition or differentiator
Google rewrites meta descriptions ~63% of the time, choosing to show content from the page that better matches the query. However, having a well-written meta description still matters for the 37% of cases where it's used, and it serves as a content summary for social sharing.
Missing meta descriptions are one of the most common audit findings — and one of the easiest to fix.
Example
Bad: 'Welcome to our website. We do SEO stuff.' Good: 'Run a free SEO audit on any website. 200+ technical checks, Health Score, and AI action plan preview. No credit card. Results in 60 seconds.'