Term
Meta Description
The meta description is an HTML tag in a page's head that contains a short summary of the content — Google often uses it as the snippet text shown in the SERP.
Meta Description — explained in more detail
The meta description itself is not a direct ranking factor. It works indirectly: a well-written snippet increases click-through rate from the SERP, and a higher CTR is a signal that the page matches the query. Recommended length: roughly 150–160 characters — anything beyond that gets truncated in the SERP and shown with a trailing ”…”.
Important to know: Google uses the supplied meta description in only about 60 % of cases. For the remaining hits, the search engine generates its own snippet from the page content if it considers that more relevant for the query. Setting your own description is still worthwhile — it defines the default snippet for brand and core pages.
Example / practical context
In the HTML head:
<meta name="description" content="SEO strategy for SaaS providers — how data-driven content planning helped us 4× organic traffic in 12 months.">Distinction from similar terms
The title tag is the headline in the SERP — the strongest CTR lever. The meta description is the explanatory text below it. Both together are referred to as the snippet, but technically they are two separate tags.
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Canonical Tag
The canonical tag (`rel="canonical"`) is an HTML element telling search engines the preferred URL for a page — central to avoiding duplicate-content issues.
LexikonMeta Tags Done Right — Title, Description, Canonical, Robots
Title, description, canonical, robots meta — what Google actually uses, where it rewrites, and how to set the tags so clicks and indexing stay clean.
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