A meta description is the snippet of text that appears under your page title in search results. It should be 150–160 characters maximum—roughly 920–960 pixels in width—because Google truncates anything beyond that with an ellipsis. Mobile displays are even tighter, so front-load the critical information. Your meta description must accurately reflect what's on the page. Google often rewrites descriptions that don't match user intent or query context, pulling text directly from your content instead. If you see your descriptions getting rewritten frequently, it's a signal that you're either off-topic or too vague. Include your primary keyword naturally, ideally near the beginning. Google bolds matching terms in the SERP, which draws the eye and signals relevance. But never keyword-stuff—write for humans first. The goal is to earn the click from someone who's already searching for what you offer. A strong meta description answers the implicit question: why should I click this result instead of the nine others? If you're a local business in Ottawa, mention your location. If you're selling something, state the benefit or differentiator. If it's informational content, preview the value clearly. Avoid duplicate meta descriptions across your site. Every page competes in different search contexts, so every description should be unique. At Ottawa SEO, we audit client sites and routinely find dozens of pages sharing the same boilerplate description—massive missed opportunity. Technical notes: Meta descriptions don't directly influence rankings, but they affect click-through rate, which does. If your CTR is below benchmark for your position (roughly 2–3% for position 10, 30%+ for position 1), your description might be the weak link. Also, e-commerce sites can benefit from dynamic descriptions that pull in price, availability, or review stars if your CMS supports it. Write them by hand for high-value pages. Auto-generate only for massive sites where manual work doesn't scale. And test—swap descriptions on key pages quarterly and track CTR changes in Search Console.