---
title: "description · Meta Tag · zhead"
canonical_url: "https://zhead.dev/meta/description"
last_updated: "2026-08-19T02:35:55.482Z"
meta:
  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."
  "og: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."
  "og:title": "description · Meta Tag · zhead"
---

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

- [Google Search Central: Snippet](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet)
- [HTML Living Standard: Semantics](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#meta-description)

## Related meta tags

### [author](https://zhead.dev/meta/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](https://zhead.dev/meta/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](https://zhead.dev/meta/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](https://zhead.dev/meta/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](https://zhead.dev/meta/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.