The meta description is a key element of a web page’s meta tags. It allows webmasters to briefly summarize the content and quality of a page.
Meta descriptions serve as a brief overview of a web page's content, often appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs) as snippets. They play an important role in conveying the essence of a page to both search engines and users.
A long time ago, including keywords in a URL’s meta description was an SEO ranking factor. Nowadays, the quality and relevance of the description's content are much more significant for optimizing snippets. A well-crafted meta description can boost traffic and click-through rate (CTR) by enticing users to click on a search result.
Search engine ranking criteria have become more complex over time. In the early days of web search, a website’s meta tags, including meta descriptions, were crucial for determining a page's ranking in search results. They could be "stuffed" with keywords to enhance page optimization. For more on this, see our entry on Keyword Stuffing.
In 2009, Google announced that meta keywords and descriptions no longer significantly impacted ranking algorithms. The excessive use of keywords for manipulation led to a decrease in user value, turning pages into spam. This practice may have been favorable to search engines but not to users.
Today, if a "search engine optimizer" offers meta description optimization as a key ranking factor, they are mistaken and offering a service that lacks real value.
Despite the enhancement of SERPs with rich snippets, the meta description remains crucial as it provides the first impression for potential users alongside the page title and URL. Crafting it thoughtfully can motivate users to click even if the page isn’t in the top Google positions.
The meta description serves as a web page's initial representation in organic search results, significantly influencing CTR and traffic.
Since Google uses CTR to gauge a webpage’s relevance to SERPs, the meta description could be considered an indirect ranking factor.
The optimal length for a meta description used to be about 150 characters, including spaces. Since Google changed its search results layout in 2016, the length can be up to 175 characters. However, it's still wise to stick to 150 characters to avoid truncation.
The character limit is an approximation, as search engines measure the pixel length of the meta tag rather than characters. Longer descriptions are often truncated or replaced by “…”. Important information should fit within this space to inform users about the page content and encourage clicks.
Mobile search results have less space due to smaller displays. To optimize for mobile SERPs, keep meta descriptions to a maximum of 120 characters. Although Google sometimes displays longer descriptions, sticking to this limit ensures clarity. Also, images in snippets can limit character count.
Important: Google may replace less relevant meta descriptions with its own snippets from existing content. Avoid this by crafting meaningful descriptions that accurately reflect the page's content. While multiple descriptions for a website are possible, their SEO value is debatable.
The "noodp tag" is a remnant of past SEO practices, allowing webmasters to indicate that a URL’s description in search snippets should not come from the DMOZ directory.
The Background: When search engines were less efficient and less used, web directories like DMOZ were key sources of web information. Descriptions from these directories were trusted and used in search snippets instead of meta descriptions. To prevent a snippet from using DMOZ descriptions, include the following in the source code:
<meta name='robots' content='noodp'>
<meta name='msnbot' content='noodp'>
<meta name='GoogleBot' content='noodp'>