Meta description
The short summary of a page that search engines often show under its title in results — your chance to earn the click.
In plain English
When your page appears in Google, there's usually a line or two of text under the blue title. That's the meta description. It doesn't directly change your ranking, but it's your advert: a clear, tempting summary gets more people to click.
If you don't write one, the search engine picks a snippet for you — often an awkward fragment from the page.
How to fix / set it up
- Write a unique 50–160 character summary for each important page.
- Include the main thing the page offers and a reason to click.
- Add it as a meta description tag in the head.
The technical detail
Add <meta name="description" content="…"> in the head, roughly 50–160 characters, unique per page. Engines may still rewrite it based on the query, but a good one is used most of the time.
FAQ
Does the meta description affect ranking?
Not directly, but a compelling one lifts click-through, which matters.
How long should it be?
About 50–160 characters, so it isn't truncated in results.