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Meta Description

The meta description is a description of a page that may appear below the title in search results.

What Is a Meta Description?

The meta description is the text describing the page’s content that may appear below the meta title in search results. It serves as both a description and promotional text designed to encourage users to click on the link. In just a few words, it should therefore make clear what the page contains and what value lies behind the search result.

Important: The meta description is not a direct ranking factor. Its influence lies rather in the fact that it can help determine whether the link is actually clicked. As a guideline, around 150 to 160 characters are often used. However, there is no fixed character limit, as Google truncates snippets depending on the device and available width.

Where did the meta description originate?

Meta tags have been part of HTML since the 1990s and are used to provide additional information about a page. Due to manipulation by websites, search engines reduced their direct influence on rankings. Today, meta descriptions give people a preview of what the page has to offer.

Why is the meta description important?

Regardless of a page’s ranking position, not every link is clicked automatically. The meta description thus helps convince users to visit your website amid fierce competition.

Whether by mentioning relevant search terms, addressing a direct question, or simply clearly stating the page’s content—there are many ways to encourage potential website visitors to click. A compelling description can increase the likelihood of a click and thereby attract more visitors from existing visibility.

Advantages

  • A good meta description can increase the click-through rate and thus attract more visitors from existing visibility.
  • It’s quick to create and customize.
  • It can make a search result more appealing without changing its ranking position.

Challenges

Whether Google displays the provided description is at the search engine’s discretion. If it doesn’t match the search query, Google may generate its own description from the page content.

Fitting the benefits and call to action into the limited space also requires a delicate touch. Especially for a large website, it’s therefore important to create your own descriptions that are as unique as possible, rather than using generic, meaningless text that adds no value.

Example

A company’s services page ranks well in search results for relevant queries but is rarely clicked on. An analysis reveals that the meta description is missing, so Google has generated its own, rather vague description.

After an optimized description was added—one that highlights the benefits and a USP—the click-through rate increased. The same ranking now brings noticeably more visitors—simply because of the more inviting description.

Related terms

Meta Title (Title Tag) The meta title is the clickable headline of a page that appears in search results. CTR (Click-Through Rate) The click-through rate (CTR) indicates how often viewing an ad or a search result results in a click. SERP (Search Results Page) A search results page (SERP) is the page where search results are listed—for example, on Google—and these days it’s much more than just a list of links. Rich Snippet (Rich Result) A Rich Result, formerly known as a Rich Snippet, is a search result that is displayed with additional information such as prices, images, or reviews.