How to Write Engaging Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a short summary of a webpage's content that appears in the search engine results page below the page title and URL. Meta descriptions can influence click-through rate, which means they can influence whether a user decides to visit your page. This article covers how to write engaging meta descriptions and how to use tools that check for meta description issues. A meta description is a summary of a webpage that is provided to users and search engines. It is best to keep the meta description around 120 characters or fewer. Google will cut off the meta description after 160 characters on desktop and 120 characters on mobile. If the meta description is cut off in the search engine results page (SERP), users may not get the full context of the page from the description. The example above is 168 characters. Google would truncate it in both mobile and desktop search results. The user might get the gist of it, but they likely won’t ever see anything past the cutoff point. So it's best to take up as much of the 120 characters as possible. Meta descriptions are supposed to encourager users to click on your page. Google will bold any relevant words and synonyms from the search query that appear in the meta description. You can save characters by using active voice, which clearly explains to users what they will see if they click on your page. The point of any call to action is to get the user to do something. Phrases like "Learn more," "Try for free," "Find out more," and "Explore our services" are all examples of calls to action. Using the same meta description for multiple pages is not beneficial. It is better to be specific about what the user will find on each page. The Site Audit tool can be used to identify pages with duplicate descriptions. The meta description for each search result should be unique to the page and topic. This way, users can easily tell what kind of page they are navigating to. Use the On Page SEO Checker to see if Google is rewriting your meta descriptions. You can use PageImprove to automatically change various elements of your website's SEO, such as meta descriptions and title tags. All you need to do is add a piece of code to your site. With this code in place, you can update your website's meta descriptions without having to log into your CMS. Additionally, there are free Chrome extensions that can help you check your meta descriptions and get other useful information. For more tips on improving your website's SEO, consult our in-depth guide.

(source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/meta-description)