How Long Should Your Meta Description Tag Be?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

I’ve seen meta description tags get cut off in the SERPs. Have you? There is a reason this happens. It’s because there is a limit to how much description the search engines will display in the SERP for any search result that appears.

Google will display up to 160 characters in your SERP snippet. Yahoo! goes up to 165 characters. And MSN will display over 200 words. You don’t want to go beyond the smallest number, 160. Keep it short.

But is character limit all there is to think about in writing your meta description? No. Of course not. You also want to think about optimizing your meta description and write it in such a way as to entice searchers to click through to your website. It should be written as a call to action. So give it a little sizzle, but don’t bait and switch. Give searchers exactly what you tell them to expect. If they land on your website and don’t find what your description promises then they’ll be disappointed and won’t stick around.

As part of your on site search engine optimization your meta description, use your keyword once or twice but no more than that. Make sure, just as you do in your content, that you make the description sound natural. Don’t stuff it with keywords. In most cases, one instance of your keyword is enough. You might get away with two instances if it doesn’t look spammy, but I’d encourage you to make the second instance a variation of your keyword and not a repeat of it verbatim.

Make sure your meta descriptions and short and snappy. You don’t want searchers to read a part of a description as that may lead to fewer click throughs.

March 10, 2009
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10 Comments
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SEO

10 Responses to “How Long Should Your Meta Description Tag Be?”

sanju says:

June 30, 2010 at 6:00 pm

hi,

Thnks i was so confused as different person say different. My teacher told me to stick to 160. Thnks for the info
Nick Stamoulis says:

July 1, 2010 at 7:22 pm

Hi Sanju,
Sure, I am happy to provide the information and help!
Knife4u says:

July 16, 2010 at 1:59 pm

Thank you for this information, the answer I have was very relevant to my question.
Keep the good work!
Nick Stamoulis says:

July 16, 2010 at 2:04 pm

Thanks Knife4U for the comment, glad this helped you!
Rob Aid says:

December 17, 2010 at 4:42 am

Thanks for the info, i don’t know why number 120 was stuck in my head, so I had to check before writing index page description.
Kristy Berends Photography says:

December 29, 2010 at 2:33 am

I only used about 80 characters, and I get an issue from webmaster tools that mine is too short. Seems like 80 should be enough, don’t you?
Nick Stamoulis says:

December 30, 2010 at 7:18 pm

Hi Kristy,

I tend to keep meta tag descriptions anywhere from 100 to 160 characters long…

Thanks for reading!
Nick
Bootcamps Calgary says:

March 9, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Thanks for this article! There are so many people within my industry that focus on top placement but forget about what there meta description should contain and how long it can be.
Mehedi Hasan says:

October 23, 2011 at 1:53 pm

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the information you provided. I knew that it should be
Mehedi Hasan says:

October 23, 2011 at 1:55 pm

Hi Nick,

I knew that it should be kept within 160 character, but was confused about whether should I cross that limit or not. You made me clear. Thanks for the information you provided.