Meta descriptions don't influence Google's ranking algorithm directly—Google confirmed this in 2009 and has reiterated it since. They're not a ranking factor. However, they matter enormously because they're often what users see in search results, and higher click-through rates send positive user signals that can indirectly affect rankings over time. A well-written meta description acts as ad copy for your organic listing. When it matches search intent and includes the target keyword naturally, Google bolds matching terms, making your result more visually prominent. We've seen CTR improvements of 8–12% on average when replacing auto-generated snippets with targeted descriptions, and on competitive commercial queries that difference compounds into significant traffic gains. Google doesn't always use your meta description—they rewrite it roughly 60–70% of the time, pulling content from the page they deem more relevant to the specific query. That's fine. When they do use yours, you want it optimized. When they don't, having strong on-page content for them to pull from matters even more. Key principles we follow at Ottawa SEO: - Keep it 140–155 characters to avoid truncation on desktop and mobile - Front-load the primary keyword and value proposition in the first 120 characters - Write for the user, not the algorithm—answer "why click this result?" - Avoid duplicate meta descriptions across pages; each should reflect that page's unique angle - For local pages, include the city name early ("Ottawa web design" not "web design in Ottawa") The biggest mistake is leaving them blank or auto-generating them at scale with templates that read like spam. Google will write something, but it's usually a disjointed sentence fragment. Take the 90 seconds per important page to write a real description. For a 50-page site, that's a weekend afternoon that can shift your traffic 10% higher for years.