An HTML description that summarizes a webpage and may appear beneath its title in search results.
A concise search snippet element written to clarify relevance and encourage qualified clicks.
Short and sweet:
An HTML description that summarizes a webpage and may appear beneath its title in search results.
A concise search snippet element written to clarify relevance and encourage qualified clicks.
See also: Title Tag, Search Engine Results Page, Click-Through Rate
A meta description is the short block of text that appears below a title tag in a search engine results page, summarizing what a page is about and giving a searcher context before they decide whether to click. While it isn’t a direct ranking factor the way a title tag can be, a well-written one still influences click-through rate, which can indirectly affect how a page performs over time. Search engines also sometimes ignore a written meta description entirely and generate their own snippet from the page content if they judge it a better match for a specific query.
A travel blog might write a meta description like “Discover the 10 best beaches in Portugal, complete with photos, tips, and the best time to visit,” giving searchers a clear reason to click.
Yoast SEO warns writers if this snippet runs too long, since Google typically truncates anything beyond roughly 155 characters with an ellipsis in the search results.
An online shoe store could craft its own version mentioning free shipping and a return policy directly, using it to nudge a price-conscious shopper to click its listing over a competitor’s.
