How to write a 70 to 160 character meta description
A meta description of 70 to 160 characters is the snippet Google and AI citation cards most often show under your link. Write one plain sentence that states what the page offers and gives a reason to click, then count the characters so nothing is cut off or left too thin to be useful.
By ratemysite.ai editorial team. Updated .
How do you fix it?
- Open the page source or your CMS SEO panel and find <meta name="description" content="...">; add the tag to the head if it is missing.
- Write one sentence that names the topic and the benefit, for example "Check your site against 49 SEO and AI search rules and get a fix list in 30 seconds."
- Count the characters and keep the text between 70 and 160, so mobile and desktop results show it whole.
- Give every page its own description; never reuse the home page text on inner pages.
- Re-run the audit and confirm the Meta description check passes.
What is a meta description and why does it matter?
A meta description is a short HTML tag in the page head that summarizes the page for search results. Google does not use it as a ranking signal, but it often shows it as the snippet, and a better snippet earns more clicks. AI search tools reuse the same summary when they cite a page. Take a page whose description is 40 characters long: it wastes most of the snippet space, while one over 160 characters is likely to be cut off.
How long should a meta description be?
Aim for 70 to 160 characters. Below 70 characters the snippet wastes space and says little. Above 160 characters Google cuts the text with an ellipsis, usually on mobile first. Put the key promise in the first 120 characters, because that part is almost always visible. Avoid quotation marks inside the text, since they can break the tag, and avoid stuffing keywords: write for the person reading the result.
How much does this check matter?
- This check is worth about 1.9% of the overall score.
- A finished report is reused for 24 hours before you can re-analyze it.
- Each page is fetched with a timeout of 10 seconds, and HTML larger than 2 MB is not audited.
What else do people ask?
- Does Google always use my meta description?
- No. Google rewrites the snippet when it thinks other page text answers the query better. A clear, accurate description is still used for a large share of results and is the text AI cards often quote.
- Do meta descriptions affect rankings?
- Not directly. They affect click-through, which brings more visitors, and they give answer engines a ready summary of the page.