A meta description is the short page summary that search engines can show under your title in results.It does not move your ranking — it moves the click, which is why it is best written as ad copy for the result you already earned. Here is what it does, the formula that works, and how to repair them at scale.
“what are meta description” — 880 searches/mo (Google, US)Average monthly US search volume. Source: Google autocomplete demand via AnswerThePublic, 2026.
What a meta description is (and where it lives)
Technically it is one HTML tag in the page head:
<meta name="description"
content="Run a free SEO audit for your website — up to 25
pages, no signup. Executive summary, issues by category,
priority pages, and a PDF report in minutes." />Visitors never see it on the page — they see it in search results, in link previews on Slack and social platforms, and anywhere else your URL unfurls. Two honest caveats up front: Google rewrites descriptions for a large share of queries when it thinks a passage from the page serves the searcher better, and it truncatesby pixel width — so treat the description as a strong suggestion you optimise, not a guarantee.
How to write a meta description: the formula
The pattern that survives contact with real results pages: outcome + specifics + differentiator + verb, front-loaded into ~120 characters, hard stop around 155.
- Lead with the outcome the searcher wants.They typed a problem; open with its solution. “Run a free SEO audit for your website” beats “Welcome to our audit page”.
- Add concrete specifics.Numbers, scope, constraints: “25 pages, no signup” does more persuasion than three adjectives.
- Say what makes this result different from the nine others on the page — free, fastest, with examples, updated, from the source.
- Use an active verb, skip filler.“Learn more about…” and “Welcome to…” are dead characters.
- Match the query’s language. Words from the search get bolded in the snippet — literal echoes of the target phrase earn visual weight.
Three before/after examples
- Product page. Before: “High quality running shoes for every occasion. Shop now.” After: “Trail runners with 4.8★ from 1,200+ reviews — 214 g light, free 30-day returns. See sizes in stock.”
- Guide. Before: “In this article we will discuss internal linking.” After: “How internal links move rankings: hub-and-spoke structure, anchor text rules, and the orphan-page fix — with examples.”
- Local service. Before: “We are a family run dental practice serving the local area.” After: “Same-week dental appointments in Leeds — transparent prices, 4.9★ from 200+ patients. Book online in 2 minutes.”
Fixing them at scale in WordPress
The typical audit finding is not one bad description — it is three hundred missing ones. The scalable repair order:
- Set templates per post type so every page has a sensible generated default (title + category + site promise) instead of nothing.
- Hand-write the pages that earn it: homepage, money pages, top-traffic posts — the twenty pages that get 80% of impressions.
- Bulk-edit the middle tier in a table view rather than opening three hundred editors.
- Re-crawl to verify — duplicates and stragglers hide until a crawler counts them.
Related reading: descriptions pair with titles — the other half of the snippet — covered in the WordPress SEO checklist.
Frequently asked questions
- Do meta descriptions affect Google rankings?
- Not directly — Google has confirmed the description is not a ranking factor. It affects the click, which is the next best thing: a compelling description raises click-through rate from whatever position you hold, and more of the right clicks is real traffic regardless of ranking movement.
- How long should a meta description be?
- Aim for roughly 120–155 characters. Google truncates by pixel width rather than a fixed character count, and shows less on mobile, so front-load the substance in the first 120 characters and treat anything after ~155 as likely to be cut.
- Why does Google ignore my meta description?
- Google rewrites descriptions for a large share of queries — usually when it judges a page snippet more relevant to the specific search than your generic description. You reduce (never eliminate) rewriting by making descriptions specific to the page’s actual content and aligned with the queries it ranks for.
- Do meta keywords still matter?
- No. Google has ignored the meta keywords tag for well over a decade. Leave it empty — filling it does nothing for ranking and advertises your target terms to competitors.
- How do I add meta descriptions in WordPress?
- Core WordPress has no field for them — that is what SEO plugins provide. Each page and post gets a description field, and good plugins add templates (so post types get sensible defaults) plus bulk editing, which is how you fix hundreds of missing descriptions in one sitting instead of one page at a time.