Meta description examples that earn clicks

A good meta description example names the specific thing on the page, gives one fact a searcher would check before clicking, and fits before the snippet clips. Below are seven before and after rewrites, one per page type, each with the reason the after version earns more clicks. Every business here is made up.

Google builds most snippets from page content and uses your meta description when it describes the page better, so a specific description is the one that survives. For how the tag works and when Google rewrites it, read what a meta description is, and for limits see meta description length.

Meta description examples for product and category pages

Product page

Larkspur Kettles sells a gooseneck kettle.

Before: Shop the best kettles online at Larkspur Kettles. High quality products at great prices. Fast shipping!
After: 1 L gooseneck kettle with temperature hold from 40 to 100°C. Brushed steel, 1200 W, ships in two days. $89 with a two-year warranty.

The after version lists the size, temperature range, price and warranty that buyers compare. The click it earns comes from someone already close to buying. Google's own snippet documentation uses the same move for a book, packing the price and page count into one line.

Category page

Fernhill Outdoor has a category of two-person tents.

Before: Tents, camping tents, backpacking tents, 2 person tents, lightweight tents, tents for sale.
After: Compare 34 two-person tents under 2 kg, from $149 to $520. Filter by season rating, packed size and pole type, with 60-day returns.

The before is a keyword list, and Google says descriptions made of long strings of keywords are less likely to be shown at all. The after tells the searcher how many options they get and how to narrow them down.

Blog post and docs page examples

Blog post

Copperline Coffee publishes a guide to cold brew ratios.

Before: In this blog post we will discuss everything you need to know about cold brew coffee and how to make it at home.
After: Use 1 part coarse coffee to 8 parts water and steep 16 hours in the fridge. Ratios for concentrate, iced latte and a 2 L batch, tested by our roaster.

The after gives away the core answer and promises the variations, which is a stronger pull than "everything you need to know," a phrase every competing post already uses.

Docs page

Quillstack documents its webhook signatures.

Before: Quillstack documentation. Learn about webhooks and more.
After: Verify Quillstack webhook signatures with HMAC-SHA256. Header format, a Node.js and Python example, and how to reject replays older than 5 minutes.

A developer scanning results wants to know the page has code in their language, and the after says so in the first line.

Local business and home page examples

Local business

Bramble Street Plumbing works in the fictional town of Harlow Bay.

Before: Bramble Street Plumbing is a family owned business committed to excellence and customer satisfaction since 1998.
After: Emergency plumbers in Harlow Bay, on site in 60 minutes, 24/7. Burst pipes, blocked drains and water heaters. Flat $95 callout, quoted before work starts.

Someone with water on the floor reads for town, speed and price, and the before version gives them none of the three.

Home page

Ovenbird Supply sells baking ingredients to small bakeries.

Before: Welcome to Ovenbird Supply, your one-stop shop for all your needs. Quality you can trust.
After: Wholesale flour, butter and yeast for independent bakeries, delivered twice a week across the North Coast. No minimum order on your first three deliveries.

A home page description should say who the business sells to, and "one-stop shop for all your needs" says nothing a search result can use.

SaaS pricing page example

Tallyroom is an invoicing app with three plans.

Before: Tallyroom pricing. Find the perfect plan for your business today.
After: Tallyroom costs $0 for 5 invoices a month, $12 for unlimited, or $29 with team seats and recurring billing. Annual plans save 20%. Cancel anytime.

People who search "tallyroom pricing" want the numbers, and putting them in the snippet wins the click from the comparison sites that would otherwise answer first.

One pattern runs through all seven. The after version could only belong to that one page. If you can paste your description onto a competitor's page and it still makes sense, rewrite it.

How to write your own from these examples

Each after version answers the one question that decides the click for its page type. Find that question first, then fill it in.

Write a unique description for your home page and your most visited pages first. Google suggests exactly that order when you cannot cover every page. For a catalog of thousands of products, generate descriptions from your product data with a template like the Larkspur one. Google encourages programmatic descriptions on large database-driven sites as long as they read like a person wrote them and differ from page to page.

Keep every fact in the description true on the page. A $89 price in the snippet and $99 on the page loses the visitor you just won.

Check your meta descriptions with the On-Page SEO Checker

The On-Page SEO Checker fetches a page and reads its title and meta description from the HTML. It flags a missing description, one under 70 characters, one wide enough to clip in desktop results, more than one description tag, and a description that repeats the title. It shows a snippet preview with where the text cuts off, and the H1 to H6 outline.

Add a target query and it also grades how well the title, H1, URL and body cover that query. It reads the HTML the server returns, so tags injected by JavaScript after load are not seen, and it does not write descriptions for you. Each run costs 8 credits.