Meta description
Short definition
A meta description is the short text under the title in search results, summarising a page's content in a sentence or two.
A meta description does not affect ranking directly, but it strongly affects the click decision. Between two pages sitting in the same position, these few lines are often what decides which one gets the click, since that is all the visitor sees before choosing.
Keeping it between roughly 120 and 155 characters lets the search engine show it in full without cutting it off. Leave it blank while writing a page and the engine usually pulls a random sentence from the content, which is rarely the most persuasive one.
The most common mistake is copying the same line across dozens of pages or product variants, so results that differ end up carrying identical descriptions and a visitor cannot tell them apart. The fix is a distinct sentence per page giving a concrete reason to click, since a meta description does not affect ranking, stuffing it with keywords brings no benefit either.
Why it matters
A well-written meta description can make a page get clicked more than a competitor sitting in the same spot. Leave it blank or careless, and even a well-ranked page can get overlooked.
Illustrative example
An event equipment rental site added a clear delivery timeframe to its meta description, and the click-through rate on that same ranking position rose noticeably.
