What is a meta description (and how to write one)

Here’s a small thing that punches above its weight: the meta description is one of the very few pieces of text Google shows about your page that you get to write. Mess it up (or leave it blank) and Google scrapes a random, often clumsy sentence from your page instead. Get it right and a page sitting at position four can out-click the duller result above it. It’s the back-cover blurb for a single page.

A meta description is the short summary of a web page that search engines and AI tools can show beneath the page title in results. It doesn’t directly affect your Google ranking, but a clear, specific one persuades more people to click.

Where a meta description shows up

You write it once in the page’s code (a <meta name="description"> tag), and it can appear in several places:

• Google and Bing results, the grey text under the blue title link.
• Social shares, when someone posts your link on LinkedIn, Facebook or WhatsApp, the preview often pulls the meta description.
• AI answers, tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews read it to understand and summarise the page.

One important caveat: search engines don’t always use what you wrote. If Google thinks a different snippet from your page matches the search better, it’ll show that instead. You’re writing a strong default, not a guarantee.

Does it affect your ranking?

Short answer: not directly.

So while it won’t push you up the page on its own, it’s one of the few bits of search text you fully control. A page at position four with a sharp description can beat a dull one above it. For the on-page basics that do move rankings, see on-page SEO basics.

How to write a good one

Aim for one or two natural sentences, around 120 to 155 characters, that read like a helpful answer rather than a keyword list:

A simple before-and-after:

• Weak: “Welcome to our website. We are a company that offers many services.”
• Strong: “Family-run electricians in Bristol. Rewires, fault-finding and EV chargers fitted, with a free written quote and 12-month guarantee.”

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Leaving it blank. Then Google grabs a random sentence from your page, often the wrong one.
2. Stuffing keywords. “Plumber plumber Leeds plumbing services plumber” looks like spam and puts people off.
3. Duplicating across pages. Identical descriptions tell search engines (and AI) that your pages are interchangeable.
4. Writing too long. Anything past roughly 155 characters gets truncated mid-sentence.
5. Over-promising. Don’t claim “cheapest in the UK” or “guaranteed results” you can’t back up.

Writing a unique, well-judged description for every page is fiddly and easy to forget when you’ve dozens of pages. We handle this as part of building and maintaining client sites, so every page goes live with a tidy title and description rather than whatever Google decides to scrape. See what done-for-you includes or get in touch if you’d rather not manage it.

Before you publish a page, ask four things: does the description answer “what is this page and why open it?” in plain English; is it under ~155 characters; does it include the natural search phrase; is it different from every other page? Get those right and you’ve a meta description that works for both human searchers and the AI tools now summarising the web. Review your top pages this week, starting with the homepage and main services.