Meta description: the ultimate reference guide

Meta description

Last updated: Mar 23, 2026

The meta description defines the description of a page in just one or two sentences and is shown in search engine result pages. Due to this, it's a major driver behind your website's performance in search engine result pages.

Keep the following things in mind when writing meta descriptions:

Keep its length between 430 pixels and 920 pixels (± 70 and 155 characters respectively).
Make sure the meta description is easy to read and contains relevant keywords.
Prevent duplicate content issues by making the meta description unique for every indexable page.

What is a Meta Description?

The meta description is one of a web page’s meta tags. With this meta information, webmasters can briefly sketch out the content and quality of a web page. It is shown in search engine result pages and plays a big role within search engine marketing.

What properties does a Meta Description have?

Length

Use these rules of thumb when it comes to the meta description length:

Maximum length: 155 characters or 920 pixels
Minimum length: 70 characters or 430 pixels

In most cases, these lengths work well for most devices for Google, Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo.

Other properties that make a Meta Description great

Besides the right length, a great meta description has:

Great readability
Relevant keywords
Delivers the message
Uniqueness

Synonyms for Meta Description

Because of its relevance to SEO, the meta description is sometimes also called "SEO description".

What does a Meta Description look like?

The meta description element is located in the <HEAD> section of the page:

<meta name="description" content="Get more visitors and increase conversions with Conductor Monitoring. Monitor your website and catch problems before search engines and visitors do. Try it today!" />

How do you write optimal Meta Descriptions?

Writing great meta descriptions isn't easy, so below we describe what makes a meta description great:

Great readability - getting the point across even though there is so little space.
Relevant keywords - use the most relevant keywords for each page.
Delivering the message - a meta description should convey benefits or USPs.
Good length - a meta description should be between 70 - 155 characters.
Uniqueness - every meta description should be unique.

Example: iPad 4 mini

Apple's meta description for the query apple ipad 4:

Readability: Apple has thought about the most important keywords for this page. And they've been used in the meta description.
Relevant keywords: the meta description is relevant for the search query.
Delivering the message: the meta description contains a Call-To-Action (CTA): "Buy online, or visit an Apple store today".

Why should you be using the Meta Description?

The meta description is essentially your sales pitch. You need it to be great.

Search Engine Optimization

Even though there is no direct relation between great meta descriptions and higher rankings, meta descriptions play a vital part in Search Engine Optimization:

Meta descriptions are prominently shown in SERPs and play a big role within Search Engine Optimization.
Search engines track the amount of users that click on your listing in the SERPs. When a lot of visitors click through to your website from the SERP your rankings may improve over time.

How do you optimize the Meta Description for PDF files?

Search engines are trying to index the entire web, including PDF files. When search engines show your PDF files in search engine result pages, you want them to show an enticing meta description.

Define Meta Description in Adobe Reader Pro

Follow the steps below to define the meta description for PDF file using Adobe Reader Pro:

Open the PDF file with Adobe Reader Pro.
Go to File > Properties
Search for the field Subject and define the meta description there.

Frequently asked questions about Meta Descriptions

1. How long should my Meta Description be?

Maximum length: 155 characters or 920 pixels
Minimum length: 70 characters or 430 pixels

2. Should I manually define all of my Meta Descriptions?

In the perfect world, each and every page within your website has a manually crafted meta description. For a website with a hundred pages, this isn't an issue, but for e-commerce websites with thousands of pages, this can be a full-time job. Define manual meta descriptions where you can really make them count.

3. Why are the search engines still showing the old meta description?

Chances are search engines haven't visited your page yet since you've made changes to your meta description.

4. Can search engines choose to show the description from Yahoo! Directory?

Yes, they can. If you don't want this, you can set up the required tags in your <HEAD> section:

<meta name="robots" content="noodp" />
<meta name="robots" content="noydir" />