Meta description
SEO and AI visibility
SEO and AI visibility
The meta description is the short summary in a page's code that Google often shows as the descriptive text under the title in search results.
It is not a ranking factor but it is a click factor. Aim for roughly 150 to 160 characters, state what the visitor gets on the page and end with a reason to click.
Give every page its own description. If it is missing or doesn't match the query, Google picks a snippet from the page itself — usually less convincing than your own wording.
In practice
Stuffing keywords doesn't work: it reads worse and Google replaces it anyway.
Related terms
- Meta titleThe meta title (title tag) is a page's title in the code; Google usually uses it as the blue headline in search results and the browser shows it in the tab.
- SERPThe SERP is a search engine's results page: alongside blue links it holds ads, maps, videos, question boxes and AI answers.
- CTRCTR is the share of impressions that leads to a click: clicks divided by impressions.
- SEOSEO is the work that makes your pages findable in search engines without paying per click. It has three parts: technology, content and authority.