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Meta tags

description

Summarizes the page for directories and search engines. Google may use it as a search result snippet when it describes the page better than the visible content does.

Code examples

Good example
<meta name="description" content="Bake 12 vanilla cupcakes in 35 minutes. Includes metric measurements, storage notes, and fixes for cakes that sink.">
Specific details tell the reader what the recipe covers.
Good example
<meta name="description" content="Compare 10 day hikes near Interlaken by distance, elevation, train access, and seasonal opening dates.">
Summarizes the comparison without padding or a string of search phrases.
Avoid this example
<meta name="description" content="">
An empty tag cannot describe the page. Omit it until a useful value is available.
Avoid this example
<meta name="description" content="This website offers lots of information about various topics. Come visit our homepage to learn more.">
This could describe almost any site and gives a searcher no reason to choose the page.

Recommendations

  • 01
    Write for the Page
    Describe the specific page in plain language. Google can generate a different snippet from visible content when that better matches a search.
  • 02
    Make Useful Pages Distinct
    Use a page-specific description for important URLs. Repeating one site-wide sentence across every page is not useful in search results.
  • 03
    Skip the Character Myth
    Google sets no fixed length limit. Snippets are trimmed to fit the result and device, so lead with the details a reader needs.

Related documentation

Related meta tags

author

name

Names one author of the page. Add another author meta tag for each additional author.

<meta name="author" content="Jane Doe">
Names the author exactly as credited on the page.

charset

charset

Declares the character encoding used by the HTML document. In modern HTML, the value must be UTF-8.

<meta charset="utf-8">
The required character encoding for modern HTML.

description

name

Summarizes the page for directories and search engines. Google may use it as a search result snippet when it describes the page better than the visible content does.

<meta name="description" content="Bake 12 vanilla cupcakes in 35 minutes. Includes metric measurements, storage notes, and fixes for cakes that sink.">
Specific details tell the reader what the recipe covers.

google

name

Carries Google-specific page controls. Google currently documents nopagereadaloud for this metadata name.

<meta name="google" content="nopagereadaloud">
The documented Google-specific opt-out for page read-aloud services.

google-site-verification

name

Verifies ownership of a site in Google Search Console. Google provides the exact token to place on the site’s top-level page.

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="your_verification_code">
Replace this placeholder with the exact token issued by Search Console.