Writing meta descriptions and page titles

You write a strong page title and meta description by combining the exact keyword with the core promise in the title and by answering in two sentences, in the description, why someone should click your result rather than another.

The page title is the first thing anyone reads in the search results and largely decides whether a click follows. The meta description carries less weight for ranking and just as much weight for that click, because the two together form the first impression of your page. Two pages sitting at exactly the same position can therefore pull in completely different numbers of visitors, purely on how convincing those few lines of text are.

What a good page title contains

• The keyword up front. Put the most important term as early in the title as you can, because search engines and readers weigh the beginning more heavily than the end.
• A concrete promise. Add what makes the page distinctive, such as a year, a number or a result, rather than a generic description that would apply to every competitor just as well.
• A length that fits. Keep the title under 60 characters, otherwise Google cuts it off in the results and the part carrying your promise is the first thing to disappear.
• No duplicate titles within your site. Two pages with nearly the same title confuse both Google and the visitor about which page belongs to which question.

What a good meta description contains

• An answer to the question why. Explain in the first sentence what the visitor finds on this page that is not available elsewhere, rather than repeating what the title already says.
• A concrete action or outcome. Name what someone can do or learn, rather than a vague summary that would suit ten other pages just as well.
• A length between 130 and 155 characters. Short enough to avoid being cut off, long enough to say something that convinces.
• One message per description. Avoid cramming everything the page covers into two sentences and pick the element that earns the most clicks.

Why Google often rewrites your text anyway

• It happens more often than you think. Ahrefs analysed 20,000 keywords in 2023 and found that Google rewrote the meta description in 62.78 per cent of cases, rising to 65.62 per cent for longtail keywords.
• Google picks the text that fits the query best. When your own description is too generic or fails to match the specific question, Google pastes in a fitting fragment from your text instead of showing your own wording.
• Your influence stays large enough to keep writing. Even with a rewrite chance above 60 per cent, your text still forms the basis Google chooses from, so a sharply written description raises the odds that it stays in place.
• A rewrite is no punishment. It only means Google saw a better-fitting fragment for this particular query, and it says nothing about how well your page ranks.

What works differently on mobile

• Less room, the same rules. On a phone Google often shows a shorter title than on desktop, so put the most important word right at the front and not after a long run-up.
• The description gets cut off sooner. Allow for a slightly tighter margin than the 155 characters that still fit comfortably on desktop.
• Click speed weighs more heavily. A mobile visitor scrolls through results faster, so a title that is clear at a glance wins more often than a title that asks for explanation.

A step-by-step plan for the writing itself

1. Search the term the page is meant for and look at what is in the results now, both the titles and the descriptions.
2. Write the title with the keyword up front and a concrete promise behind it and check whether it stays under 60 characters.
3. Write the description as an answer to why someone would click this result and not the one above or below it.
4. Measure in Search Console after a few weeks whether the click-through rate moves along with a changed title or description.
5. Adjust wherever the click-through rate lags behind the position, which is often a sign that the text fails to match the query.

An example: a page ranking at position three for “solar panel quote” with a title like “Our services – Solar Company X” pulls in few clicks, because the keyword is missing and the promise is unclear. A title like “Request a solar panel quote, reply within 24 hours” speaks to that same position, since it contains the keyword and makes a concrete promise straight away. The same page with a description like “Request a free, no-obligation quote for solar panels and get a reply within 24 hours from a certified installer” adds a second concrete reason on top.

A page title and meta description are part of on-page and off-page SEO, though they work separately from structured data. Schema markup, explained in wat is schema-markup, can show a star rating or a price next to your title while leaving the text itself untouched. And a sharply worded title also helps when you are after winning the answer box, because Google rewards the same clarity there.

A common mistake is using the same title and description for dozens of pages at once, for instance through a template that only swaps the product name. That works in the short term, and it also means none of those pages really stands out among comparable results from competitors. So for your most important pages, take the time to write a title and description by hand instead of generating them automatically without further checks.

Want to see which titles and descriptions on your site are already underperforming? Take the free AI-zichtbaarheidscheck.