Meta Description
A short summary of a page's content that appears below the title in search results.
A meta description is an HTML tag that provides a brief summary of a web page's content. It appears below the title in search engine results and gives searchers a preview of what the page is about. It looks like: <meta name="description" content="Your description here">.
Meta descriptions aren't a direct ranking factor — Google confirmed this years ago. But they significantly impact click-through rate, which indirectly affects your SEO performance. A compelling meta description can be the difference between someone clicking your result or a competitor's.
Best practices: keep it under 155-160 characters (Google truncates longer ones), include your target keyword (it gets bolded in results), write unique descriptions for each page, include a call to action, and accurately describe the page content.
Google sometimes ignores your meta description and generates its own from the page content if it thinks it better matches the search query. This happens about 70% of the time. Writing great descriptions still matters for the 30% of cases where Google uses yours.
Why It Matters for SEO
While not a direct ranking factor, meta descriptions are your sales pitch in search results. They directly influence whether people click on your result. Missing or duplicate meta descriptions are missed opportunities to drive more organic traffic.
🔍 How to Check This
Use AuditMySite's Meta Tag Generator to craft optimized meta descriptions and preview how they'll look in search results.
Try Meta Tag Generator →