But meta descriptions have been getting a bad rap, especially by the likes of the big boys like Google. Since 2007, Google has felt meta descriptions don’t really impact search engine rankings, as they said in a post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog:
“[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][I]t’s worth noting that while accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won’t affect your ranking within search results.”
And yet again, Google posted another quote in 2009 that meta keywords wasn’t used as a ranking signal:
“Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don’t use the description meta tag in our ranking.”
Because of this, nobody really ever used meta descriptions, or only did them half-assed because of what Google had said about them. But if written correctly, will meta descriptions actually help your site rank? Neil Patel has the answer in a blog post that he wrote for Search Engine Land!
Check out his post to find out how meta descriptions are important for SEO, despite what Google has said!
Search Engine Land: How To Write A Meta Description That Gets Click-Throughs[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]