Meta description
Definition: A meta description is an HTML meta tag that summarizes a page; search engines may show it as the snippet under the title in results, but Google often generates its own snippet from the page content instead.
Also called: meta description tag, description snippet
Updated
When Google uses it
The meta description is a suggestion, not a guarantee. Google says its snippets are mainly generated from the page content, and it uses the meta description when it gives a more accurate description than the content alone (Control your snippets). A page can show different snippets for different queries: your meta description for one, a passage from the body for another.
Google’s documentation sets no length limit. Snippets are truncated to fit the results page, so anything past the cut-off simply does not show. The description is also not a ranking factor; its job is to help someone decide whether to click.
What a good one looks like
<meta name="description" content="Compare 12 standing desks under $600, tested for wobble at full height, motor noise and assembly time. Updated October 2026 with two new models.">It is specific (12 desks, a price ceiling), tells the reader what kind of page this is (a tested comparison), and shows it is current.
Writing habits that help
- Write a unique description for every important page; duplicates across many pages are a common audit finding.
- Include concrete details: prices, specifications, dates, authors, locations.
- Summarize the page honestly. A description that promises something the page does not deliver costs you the visitor.
- For large sites, generate descriptions from page data, as long as the result reads naturally.
- Do not list keywords; Google says it is unlikely to use descriptions written that way.
Our view: 120 to 160 characters usually displays in full. The meta tag checker flags missing, duplicated and overlong descriptions.