Do meta descriptions still matter for SEO?

01How Google decides what to show

Google's snippet documentation says snippets are created primarily from the page content itself. It uses the meta description when it might give users a more accurate description of the page than text taken directly from the page. That is why the same page can show different snippets for different searches: Google picks the passage that best matches what was searched.

In practice, a description that summarizes the page well tends to be used for broad searches like the page's main topic, while specific long searches often get a passage from the body.

02How often Google rewrites them

Ahrefs analyzed descriptions across a large sample of pages in 2020 and found Google rewrote 62.78% of them, and that 25.02% of top-ranking pages had no meta description at all, in its meta description study. Rewrites were more common for long-tail searches. The study is a few years old, and Google's systems have changed since, but the pattern matches what site owners still see in their results.

Rewriting does not mean descriptions are pointless. It means they are one input among several, and a well-written one raises the odds yours is the one people see.

03How to write a good meta description

Google's own advice is to make each description unique, include specific information, write sentences rather than keyword lists, and summarize the page. A practical approach:

1. 1Say what the page gives"Prices, timelines and what to ask before hiring a wedding photographer in Denver."
2. 2Use the words people searchGoogle bolds matching terms in snippets, which draws the eye.
3. 3Add one specific detailA price, a number of examples, a date or a location.
4. 4Keep the key point earlySnippets are cut to fit the device; around 150 characters usually shows in full.
5. 5Make each one uniqueDuplicates across pages are less likely to be used.

04Where to spend your effort

Prioritize pages with many impressions and few clicks. Search Console's Performance report lists them: sort pages by impressions, compare click-through rate, and rewrite the title and description of the weakest. The title usually matters more than the description, because it is larger and read first; what is a title tag? covers writing titles.

For large sites, a sensible template that pulls in each page's product name, price or location beats leaving them empty. For the home page and hub pages, Google suggests a site-level description is fine.

05Common myths

• "Keywords in the description boost rankings." They do not; they can only help the snippet match a search.
• "It must be exactly 155 characters." Google says there is no limit; length only affects truncation.
• "Google ignores them, so skip them." Google uses them when they fit, and empty ones give it nothing to choose.
• "The meta keywords tag helps too." Google's starter guide says it does not use the keywords meta tag.

06Meta descriptions and AI search

AI Overviews and AI assistants generate their own summaries from page content rather than quoting your description, so the opening paragraph of the page matters more there. Write the first paragraph as a clear answer and the description as a summary of that answer. How to show up in Google AI Overviews covers the rest, and SEO for a new website puts both in context.