Perfecting Your Meta Descriptions

Perfecting Your Meta Descriptions: A Decade-Old Guide That Still Holds Up

By Perry Bernard , for RankPower Ltd (NZ) based on this original article written in 2015.

10 Years Ago, I wrote this piece on Meta Descriptions and their role in improving search click-through rates (CTR). At the time, many marketers misunderstood Meta Descriptions, believing them to be part of the SEO keyword inventory, yet my advice (backed by shared detail from Google and other SEO sources) was that this wasn’t the case. Nearly a decade later, this guidance remains accurate.

Back then, this advice was considered forward-thinking: I was advocating Meta Descriptions as a conversion lever, not a ranking factor, and encouraging businesses to invest in them strategically rather than rushing to “fill every page.” Today, with Google’s ever-evolving algorithm and AI-driven snippet generation, those lessons are still highly relevant.

Watch this instead if you don’t like reading.

Why Meta Descriptions Still Matter (Even in 2025)

For some marketers, the idea that your Meta Descriptions are a mandatory part of your SEO arsenal remains, probably in part driven by the fact that most SEO tools continue to call out Meta Descriptions as part of their analysis.

But that understanding comes from mistaking that the SEO tool in use is implying SEO value in the Meta Description content itself – whereas the initial value really lies in Click Through Rate (CTR) optimisation.

Meta Descriptions remain indirect SEO assets: they don’t boost rankings, but they heavily influence CTR from search results. Google and Bing now use sophisticated algorithms and semantic search models to decide whether to display your hand-written Meta Description or auto-generate their own snippet. The principle remains the same:

• Write compelling descriptions to increase the likelihood of them rendering in search.
• Focus on relevance and engagement rather than keyword stuffing.

Best Practices That Haven’t Changed

1. Unique Descriptions Only

Every page should have one unique Meta Description. Duplicate or multipletags confuse search engines, potentially lowering snippet quality.

2. Character and Pixel Limits

Descriptions should fit within ~156 characters (spaces included) or ~920 pixels. Google measures by pixels, so uppercase letters or wide punctuation can reduce available space. A decade later, this remains a practical benchmark.

Pro tip (still valid): Avoid ending with a full stop right at the cut-off — a final word and punctuation may be truncated with an ellipsis (…). Write naturally and leave breathing room.

3. Keywords for Visual Emphasis

While Meta Description keywords don’t impact ranking, they highlight in bold when they match user queries, drawing eyes to your listing. With Google’s advanced semantic search, synonyms also trigger bolding (e.g., “business” may bold if a user searches for “company”).

4. Calls to Action

Encourage user action in your Meta Description (“Call us”, “Shop now”, “Learn more”), just as you would in ad copy.

5. Benefit Statements

Clearly state why a searcher should click. A decade on, this marketing principle hasn’t changed — relevance and persuasion win clicks.

Rendering Realities: You Don’t Control Everything

This was a big point in 2015, and it’s even truer today:

Google often rewrites or extracts snippets dynamically based on query intent. A perfect Meta Description might be replaced if the search engine thinks a piece of on-page text better matches a user’s query.

Then vs Now:

• In 2015, this was cutting-edge advice.
• In 2025, studies (Ahrefs, 2022) confirm Google rewrites ~62% of Meta Descriptions.

Your role: make them so relevant they’re worth showing!

Reverse-Engineering for Snippet Control

This process from 2015 still works, with updated tools:

1. Search Console Insight: Use Google Search Console’s Performance > Pages report to see which URLs drive impressions.
2. Top Queries Analysis: Identify top-performing keywords per page.
3. Rewrite for Match: Adjust Meta Descriptions to reflect search intent and integrate the keywords that drive impressions.
4. Force Crawl & Index: Request indexing in Search Console.
5. Test & Monitor: Check if your updated snippet is used in SERPs over time.

Pro Tip from 2015 That Still Resonates

This advice is still practical. Early-stage websites should focus on quality content and indexation first, then invest time in high-value Meta Descriptions for pages already earning impressions.

Deploying Meta Description “Spans”

A trick that remains powerful: write snippet-sized callouts directly into your on-page content. Google often extracts those instead of your HTML Meta Description, which means you can “engineer” alternate snippets by planting optimised text in visible page elements.

This technique has aged well because of how AI-based search prioritises semantic relevance.

Back in 2015, this was poorly understood. You avoid the ‘issue’ of having more than one Meta Description stated in your code, but leverage the fact that Google and Bing extract content from the page when a better in-page piece of text matches the query.

Ahead of Its Time

In 2015, this article treated Meta Descriptions as a marketing tool for CTR rather than a ranking factor, an uncommon stance back then. Nearly a decade later, this perspective aligns perfectly with how search engines operate today: your Meta Description is a conversion tool, not an algorithm hack.

If your descriptions are unique, compelling, and strategically matched to user queries, they remain a powerful lever for improving organic traffic.

But if you’re still thinking that Keywords in your Meta Description count towards your SEO, then it’s (very) long overdue for an update.