Meta descriptions have zero direct ranking weight in Google's algorithm, confirmed multiple times by Google representatives. They're not a ranking factor. But dismissing them as unimportant misses the larger picture: they're your sales pitch in the search results. When your listing appears on page one, the meta description is often what determines whether someone clicks your result or your competitor's. A compelling, benefit-focused description that matches search intent can improve CTR by 20–30% compared to a generic or missing one. Higher CTR sends positive user signals to Google, which can indirectly influence rankings over time. You're also capturing more traffic from the rankings you already have. Google rewrites meta descriptions roughly 60–70% of the time, pulling text from your page that better matches the specific query. This happens more often when your description is too generic, keyword-stuffed, or doesn't align with what the user searched. Even knowing this, you should still write them. When Google does use your description, it's your chance to control the message. When it doesn't, having strong on-page content means Google pulls from quality source material. At Ottawa SEO, we write meta descriptions for every important page: homepage, service pages, high-value blog posts. We keep them between 140–155 characters to avoid truncation, front-load the value proposition, and include a natural mention of the target keyword. We skip them on thin pages like tags or archives where Google will rewrite them anyway. The practical impact: a client's service page with a rewritten meta description focusing on local urgency saw CTR jump from 2.1% to 3.4% over eight weeks, no ranking change. That's 60% more clicks from the same position. Meta descriptions won't get you ranked, but they'll get you clicked once you are. In competitive SERPs where positions 2 through 5 blur together, your description is often the tiebreaker.