meta description
A meta description is an HTML tag that provides a brief summary of a page, often displayed in search engine results.
A meta description is an HTML element that provides a short summary of a web page. It appears in the <head> section of the page as <meta name="description" content="...">. Search engines often display the meta description as the snippet text below the page title in search results.
Why meta descriptions matter
While meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, they significantly impact click-through rate. A well-written meta description acts as ad copy for your page in search results. It tells users what the page is about and why they should click.
When a page has no meta description, search engines auto-generate one by pulling text from the page content. These auto-generated snippets are often awkward or irrelevant, leading to lower click-through rates.
Best practices
- Keep descriptions between 50 and 160 characters
- Include the primary keyword naturally
- Write a unique description for every page
- Describe the page content accurately to set correct expectations
- Include a call to action when appropriate
- Avoid duplicate descriptions across multiple pages
How crawler.sh helps
Run crawler seo on your crawl data to detect missing, duplicate, short (under 50 characters), and long (over 160 characters) meta descriptions. The report lists every affected URL so you can fix them systematically. Export the results as CSV with crawler seo --format csv to share with your team.
