Home / Blog / SEO Basics / How long should a meta description be, and does Google still use meta tags?

Answers

How long should a meta description be, and does Google still use meta tags?

16 October 2026 · By John Carlsson

There is no fixed meta description length, because Google sets no limit. The snippet is truncated to fit the device width, so write a short, unique, accurate summary that includes useful facts such as the price or publication date. Google still uses several meta tags, including description, robots, viewport and charset, but it ignores the keywords meta tag completely.

Is there an ideal meta description length?

Google does not set one. Its snippet documentation states that there is no limit on how long a meta description can be. The snippet shown in search results is truncated as needed, typically to fit the device width, so the visible text may be shorter than your tag.

That means a character count is a rough guide at best. A better test is whether the description works as a short, relevant summary that shows a searcher the page answers what they are looking for.

How should you write a meta description?

Google gives clear guidance on what helps:

Write a unique description for each page. Identical or similar descriptions across a site are not helpful.
Include useful facts such as the author, publication date, price or other key details.
Summarise the page accurately rather than writing something vague or off-topic.
Avoid long strings of keywords, which do not give users a clear idea of the page.
Use a site-level description on the home page and aggregation pages, and page-level descriptions elsewhere.

On large sites, generating descriptions from page content is acceptable, as long as the results read naturally and differ between pages.

Remember that Google creates snippets primarily from the page content itself. It uses the meta description when it gives a more accurate description of the page than the content alone. A well written tag improves the chance it is used, but it is never guaranteed.

Which meta tags does Google still use?

Google still reads several meta tags. Its list of supported meta tags includes:

description, which may be used for the search snippet.
robots and googlebot, which control crawling and indexing. When rules conflict, the more restrictive one applies.
viewport, which controls rendering on mobile devices and signals the page is mobile friendly.
notranslate and nopagereadaloud, which turn off translation and read-aloud features.
google-site-verification, for Search Console ownership.
charset and Content-Type, where Google recommends UTF-8.
rating, which labels explicit content for SafeSearch.
refresh, although Google recommends a server-side 301 redirect instead.

The keywords meta tag is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing or ranking. Google ignores meta tags it does not support, so leaving an old keywords tag in place does no harm, but it does no good either.

Where can you find the meta tags on a page?

Meta tags sit in the head section of the HTML. A simple page head looks like this:

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <meta name="description" content="A short summary of this page.">
  <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
</head>

To see them in Chrome, right-click the page and choose Inspect, or press Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows or Linux, or Cmd+Option+C on a Mac, as described in the Chrome DevTools documentation. This opens the Elements panel, where you can expand the head element in the DOM tree.

Google also notes that the head must be valid HTML so it can be read correctly. Its valid page metadata guidance explains that if an invalid element such as an iframe or img appears in the head, Google ignores any elements that come after it, so keep your meta tags above anything that does not belong there.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Why does Google show different text from my meta description?

Google creates snippets primarily from the page content itself. It uses your meta description when it gives a more accurate description of the page than the content does for that search. Different queries can produce different snippets. Writing a unique, specific description that summarises the whole page improves the chance that Google uses it.

Should I remove the keywords meta tag from my site?

You do not need to. Google says the keywords meta tag is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing or ranking, and that it ignores meta tags it does not support. Removing it is optional tidying. Your time is better spent on unique descriptions and correct robots and viewport tags.