Columnist Neil Patel explains how meta descriptions factor into SEO and provides helpful tips for improving them.
I feel sorry for meta descriptions.
Google has long held that meta descriptions do not impact search engine rankings. From a 2007 post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog:
[I]t’s worth noting that while accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won’t affect your ranking within search results.
Google reiterated this point yet again in 2009 in a post stating that the meta keywords tag was not used as a ranking signal:
Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don’t use the description meta tag in our ranking.
Thus, people have long neglected meta descriptions, pushing them to the back burner or delegating their creation to the lowly intern. Once written, meta descriptions are scarcely given a second glance or further consideration.
Meta descriptions get short shrift because well-written descriptions won’t help your site rank.
