What to do about new meta description character limit?

[kenturley]

Hey Everyone,

So as I'm sure everyone has heard the new meta description limits have been increased and I have been going back and forth with whether or not to update my descriptions for my client's websites. I know that Google is now dynamically generating descriptions based off of content, but is it still beneficial to write longer descriptions as well? Will Google display my longer description now if it is ranking well? Rand Fishkin at Moz and others say that you should and other people, including Danny Sullivan, have said you shouldn't worry about it and leave them at between 150-160. My questions is what should I do? I will be focusing heavily on making sure the site's content is very targeted and relevant for when Google dynamically generates the descriptions, but should I still edit my descriptions manually?

[Roman-Delcarmen]

When I was starting in the world of Seo I was really obsessed, with snipped optimization and keyword optimization and so on.

Now I prefer to focus on the content and the user needs.

As I see and understand Google is just trying to give to the user's more specific search results.

If someone asks a question to Google, it will try to give the best answer possible at the first time. If any page, site, fan page or whatever meets those criteria, then Google will put it in the first place. On the other hand, if that page does not meet the search query intent "answer the question" then that page will not be in the first place.

No matter the description, or the on-page optimization, or the schemas.

So I think is very simple, don't waste your time leave your meta description alone and create a good content.

[Dalessi]

Hello, the description is like the billboard of your search listing where the title tag is the headline. This is your opportunity to tell people reading the search results why they should click on it and visit your site.

Just pretend it was a paid advertisement for a minute and every click cost you five dollars. Optimize the title and descriptions to convey your message and put your best foot forward. If you think every visit is worth a certain amount of money it is easier to see how important they really are.

Best Regards

[GastonRiera]

Hello everyone!

Personally I think this is too recent. As Danny Sullivan (I think was him) said, we should not go as lunatics trying to re-optimize our meta descriptions.

My advise to everyone that asks about this: Lets give Google a little time ( how about until Q2-18?), so then we will know how is the real impact.
Of course there is a direct metric about the CTR, with longer descriptions snippets the better is the chance to call the attention of the searcher. How ever, we still dont know for sure how Google creates that descriptions.

That's just my point of view. I'm more of a cautious person.

Best luck to all.
GR.

[EGOL]

To start, we are rewriting the descriptions for a few dozen pages.

**Which pages? ** Those that have really deep content that pulls in a lot of traffic for long tail keywords of value.

What's the intended result?   If we get those frequently-searched keywords into the description they will show in bold text in the SERPs.

**What are the strategies ? **

A) Use those keywords in ways that show we have deeper information for those who click into the site.

B) Associate those keywords with value propositions, urgency, mystery and other triggers to action.

[RugenSpitaels]

With this change I saw that Google replaced my meta description by the first x amount of characters of my content. This new text was too random and not inviting people to click. (in my opinion) So I have changed all my meta descriptions to an average of 280 characters, and I already see some result in Google where it displays my new (full) meta description.

So far I'm happy I did...

[Igor.Go]

1. Crawl entire website and see which descriptions have been updated to the new limit
2. Sort pages in order from most important ones to leas important
3. Rewrite descriptions that look like this: https://i.imgur.com/UadRJT9.png
4. Repeat until all descriptions are updated

[brooksmanley]

Pete at Moz updated his "How Long Should Your Meta Descriptions Be?" post last night:

He says this:
"At the end of the day, I think it comes down to control. For critical pages, writing a good meta description is like writing ad copy — there's real value in crafting that copy to drive interest and clicks. There's no guarantee Google will use that copy, and that fact can be frustrating, but the odds are still in your favor..."

Like he says, I think it ultimately comes down to what makes the most sense for that page. For some pages on our website, a very short description seems to suffice. These can be as short as 50 characters. For some of our more "weightier" pages, like our services pages, we try our best to entice the user to click with a true description of what they will find on the page, as well as the action they might be expected to take. These may be around 300 characters. We're pretty confident (Dr. Pete is too) that this is a safe number that won't get cut off, regardless any features or "Jump To" links Google may add to the result.

Cheers!