{"id":18311,"date":"2020-05-11T12:12:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T17:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/?p=18311"},"modified":"2020-09-09T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T21:45:20","slug":"meta-description","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/meta-description\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Description: Why it Matters For SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">\r\n<article class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-beige has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-772205c6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained is-style-beige--1\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\">\r\n<header class=\"wp-block-group c-breadcrumbs aligngrid has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-61973aa6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<header class=\"wp-block-group aligngrid is-content-justification-left is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-d68226ec wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\" style=\"margin-bottom:5px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mediavine-dev.d1.moderntribe.qa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/chevron-left2.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-542\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9\/16;object-fit:contain;width:auto;height:20px\"\/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--2\"><a href=\"\/blog\/\">Back to Blog<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/header>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity aligngrid\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\"\/>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-default has-neutral-20-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--70);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\"><div class=\"aligncenter aligncenter wp-block-tribe-terms\"><ul class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__list\"><li class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__term\"><span class=\"wp-block-tribe-terms__link t-category\">SEO<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h1 style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10);\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-title\">Meta Description: Why it Matters For SEO<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-9b38c6d9 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\"><div style=\"margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-author-name\">Eric Hochberger<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u2022<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;margin-right:0;\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-date has-10-font-size\"><time datetime=\"2020-05-11T12:12:36-05:00\">May 11, 2020<\/time><\/div><\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0\">If you&#8217;re familiar at all with SEO, chances are you&#8217;ve heard of the meta description. What you might be surprised to learn is how to write a great one \u2014 and that this still matters in 2020.\n\nThe meta description is a hidden HTML attribute at the top of your web page. It might seem dated to those who have been at this awhile, but Google still recommends you use these.\n\nGoogle definitely still parses them, too. So today, we&#8217;re going to talk about how a meta description is used, its impact on your SEO and traffic and how to produce the best ones possible.\n\n<!--more-->\n<h2>What is a Meta Description?<\/h2>\nAlso known as meta tags, meta descriptions are HTML tags designed specifically for robots or computers to parse. In other words, they do not appear on the page itself for humans to actually read.\n\nThese tags can be seen if you view the HTML source of a page, but otherwise you won&#8217;t see them.\n\nEach meta tag has both a name and a content parameter. For a meta description, the name is &#8220;description&#8221; and its content will be a unique description you should write for each page.\n\nMeta tags should appear at the top of your HTML, or in the <code>&lt;head&gt;<\/code> section. For example:\n\n<code>&lt;html&gt;\n&lt;head&gt;\n&lt;title&gt;...&lt;\/title&gt;\n&lt;meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am a fantastic meta description.\" \/&gt;\n...\n&lt;\/head&gt;\n...\n&lt;\/html&gt;\n<\/code>\n<h2>What is the meta description used for?<\/h2>\nWith the technical details out the way, here is the more important question: What is this even for?\n\nFirst, we need to make it clear that by all accounts, meta descriptions will <a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2009\/09\/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>not<\/strong> affect your rankings<\/a>\u00a0here in 2020. Whatever your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-density\/\">keyword density<\/a> is, it won&#8217;t help or hurt you re: SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages).\n\nSo why write one? First, because Google flat out asks you to in their SEO Starter Guide.\n\nThat&#8217;s reason enough for us, but additionally, as we&#8217;ve mentioned in previous SEO articles, it&#8217;s not about just search rankings, but getting users to click on your search results and visit your site.\n<h2>How do meta descriptions impact search results?<\/h2>\nIt&#8217;s important to note that Google uses your meta tags as a hint.\n\nGoogle won&#8217;t always display your handwritten description in search results, and may choose to pull another snippet of text from the rest of your content, should they feel it better matches the search query.\n\nHowever, if you&#8217;re following the sage advice from our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-prominence\/\">keyword prominence<\/a> article, and the user is searching for that keyword or phrase, chances are good that Google will in fact use this section.\n\nIf they&#8217;re searching for different <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/long-tail-keywords\/\">long-tail keywords<\/a> than you happened to be targeting with your page and meta description, that&#8217;s fine. Google will likely excerpt a different section of text where you used that phrase.\n\nThe bottom line (as we&#8217;ve said in just about every SEO article to date) is not to stress too much over this. The goal is to write a good teaser for instances in which Google <em>does<\/em> select your meta tag.\n\nIf they don&#8217;t pick that, it&#8217;s fine. Just give them the chance to!\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-17438 size-mv_create_no_ratio\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-735x734.jpg\" alt=\"woman working on a laptop in a home office\" width=\"735\" height=\"734\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-735x734.jpg 735w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-460x460.jpg 460w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-768x767.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-320x320.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-480x480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589-720x720.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/AdobeStock_92616447-teal-1800px-e1586270836589.jpg 1201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/>\n<h2>How to optimize your meta description<\/h2>\nLet&#8217;s head to \u2014 where else \u2014 our friends at Google for advice.\n<h3>Optimal Length<\/h3>\nThe ideal length for meta descriptions is&#8230; whatever you want. Google tells you it should be a couple sentences or a paragraph in length, but that if you exceed that, this is 100% fine.\n\nThere is <a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2017\/06\/better-snippets-for-your-users.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">no character limit<\/a>. Google will truncate it to fit whatever device width the user is browsing on, so feel free to write a longer description if you think that&#8217;s the best option.\n<h3>Optimal Formatting<\/h3>\nThe ideal formatting for your meta description is&#8230; also whatever you like! Google explicitly says it doesn&#8217;t even need to be in <a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2007\/09\/improve-snippets-with-meta-description.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sentence format<\/a>. In fact, they give examples on using structured data.\n\nJust like the information <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/mediavine-create\/\">Create<\/a> outputs in Schema.org, you can list things like diets, number of ingredients or tools used to cook.\n\nBut remember \u2014 don&#8217;t repeat structured data Google already pulls from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/what-is-schema\/\">Schema<\/a> like calories, cook time, ratings in recipes, etc.\n\nThe meta description allows you to choose your own format. Your only goal is to entice readers to click on your content with it.\n\nIn order to make them do that, think back to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/keyword-proximity\/\">keyword proximity<\/a> post. Make sure to use your focus keywords together in the description, so Google will <strong>bold the search query<\/strong> and help your results stand out.\n\nRemember, this is also going to appear directly below your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/page-title-tags\/\">page title<\/a> in the results, so as Google says, don&#8217;t just repeat the word directly below it. Have the two pair nicely together.\n\nLet&#8217;s go for an example, and use this post itself.\n\nOur page title is, &#8220;<em>Meta Description: Why it Matters For SEO<\/em>,&#8221; as you can see. So what I want is a description that pairs nicely with that, but is unique and useful to both search engines and readers.\n\nHere goes nothing:\n\n<strong>The meta description is a valuable SEO tool. Using meta tags and data helps search engines display a description of a web page so more readers click on it.<\/strong>\n\nNot bad. Original and concise, with keyword usage that gives Google a strong idea of what we&#8217;re going for and what to bold for potential readers. Good job, me.\n\nNow, to make this the most, well, <em>meta<\/em> thing ever, I&#8217;m going to enter the two sentences I just wrote into Yoast as its official meta description. (More on Yoast&#8217;s role in this shortly.)\n<h2>Keep your meta descriptions unique<\/h2>\nAgain, we&#8217;re heeding Google&#8217;s words when we tell you that using duplicate meta descriptions across multiple pages will trigger a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/improving-rankings-google-search-console-search-analytics\/\">Google Search Console<\/a> warning.\n\nGoogle explicitly says to give each page a different one if you do a &#8220;site: search&#8221; on your domain.\n\nIn other words, don&#8217;t plug a catchall meta description into various pages. It&#8217;s better to have no meta description and let Google pick one out for you than to reuse a generic one.\n\nIf you have pages that are just generated by the computer, like archive pages that would be challenging to create unique meta descriptions for, just don&#8217;t write one.\n\nRunning an e-commerce section of your site? Then these kinds of pages will likely be numerous.\n\nIf you can construct ones that are programmatically generated, have unique content and are clickable? Go for it. If not, again, just leave it blank and let Google do its thing.\n\nHowever, for category pages you may be using as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/cornerstone-content\/\">cornerstone content<\/a> or individual post pages that you hope and expect to rank on, it&#8217;s 100% worth your time to handcraft a meta tag.\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-22358 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO.jpg\" alt=\"How to write a meta description in Yoast SEO\" width=\"754\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO.jpg 754w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-320x228.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-375x267.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-520x370.jpg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-322x229.jpg 322w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-263x187.jpg 263w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-335x239.jpg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-347x247.jpg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/How-to-write-a-meta-description-in-Yoast-SEO-640x456.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 754px) 100vw, 754px\" \/>\n<h2>Where do you actually enter your meta description?<\/h2>\nIf you&#8217;re running WordPress, then you&#8217;re going to need a third-party SEO tool, such as the popular Yoast plugin, to be able to easily customize your meta description.\n\nAs I mentioned earlier, I just entered the meta description for this page into Yoast, which was super easy. (And came in just under the suggested, but not mandatory, character limit.)\n\nWith another CMS, you&#8217;ll have to check the documentation. It&#8217;s not always obvious, but it&#8217;s worth researching and doing. See the very top of this page for a hard-coded example.\n\nIn any case, meta descriptions make up a large percentage of search engine results overall. Don&#8217;t take them for granted. Take advantage of the valuable screen real estate Google is giving you.<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-09aec4f2 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);padding-right:0;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\">\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--3\">About the author<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);\" class=\"wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__avatar\"><img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/152dc08941c75895b80ffc4d0f79236a870658434ec66e25f227ffe962e70114?s=96&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/152dc08941c75895b80ffc4d0f79236a870658434ec66e25f227ffe962e70114?s=192&#038;d=blank&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-96 photo' height='96' width='96' \/><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/author\/eric\/\" target=\"_self\">Eric Hochberger<\/a><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__bio\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-7c04bf6b wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0\">\r\n<p class=\"is-style-small is-style-small--4\">Share this page<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-outermost-social-sharing has-normal-icon-size has-icon-color is-style-logos-only is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-outermost-social-sharing-is-layout-9d3a6402 wp-block-social-sharing-is-layout-flex\" 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WhatsApp\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group aligngrid  is-animated-on-scroll-25 tribe-animation-type-fade-in tribe-animation-direction-bottom is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50);--tribe-animation-speed:0.6s;--tribe-animation-offset:50px;--tribe-animation-delay:0s;--tribe-animation-easing:var(--easing--ease-out-sine)\">\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-small is-style-small--5\" id=\"h-related-posts\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">Related Posts<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:0;\" class=\"b-related-posts b-related-posts--layout-grid  wp-block-tribe-related-posts\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"582\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1024x582.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"woman concentrating on her laptop in a workspace\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1024x582.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-320x182.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-768x436.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1536x872.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-2048x1163.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1170x664.jpeg 1170w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-375x213.jpeg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-800x454.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-569x323.jpeg 569w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-353x200.jpeg 353w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-288x164.jpeg 288w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-335x190.jpeg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-347x197.jpeg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-520x295.jpeg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-640x363.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-960x545.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AdobeStock_443672686-1080x613.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">SEO<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">Should I Republish Content? There&#8217;s a Better Way<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">Eric Hochberger<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Oct 21, 2021<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 Whether it&#8217;s for SEO or monetization purposes, we always encourage publishers to update old content. We&#8217;ve discussed at length how specifically to update content to improve RPM and optimize for SEO, but today we\u2019re focusing on a specific and surprisingly controversial aspect. How to handle the modified and published date may&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/should-i-republish-content-theres-a-better-way\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about Should I Republish Content? There&#8217;s a Better Way\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1024x682.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"man standing up using a desktop computer\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1170x779.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-375x250.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-555x370.jpg 555w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-344x229.jpg 344w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-281x187.jpg 281w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-347x231.jpg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-520x346.jpg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-640x426.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-960x640.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/SEO-Like-a-Slab-of-Beef-04-1080x719.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">Mediavine<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">SEO is a Garden a.k.a. 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The Parboil Strikes Back\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-post-card c-post-card__layout-vertical\">\n\t<div class=\"c-post-card__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__image aspect-ratio-cover aspect-ratio-3-2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"woman looking at her laptop sitting on the couch\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-320x213.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-375x250.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-555x370.jpg 555w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-344x229.jpg 344w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-281x187.jpg 281w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-347x231.jpg 347w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-520x346.jpg 520w, https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/woman-looking-at-her-laptop-sitting-on-the-couch-640x426.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-post-card__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__primary-category t-category\">SEO<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-post-card__title t-display-xx-small t-transparent-underline\">Should You Delete Content or Just Stop Linking? An SEO Dilemma<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata-readtime\">8 minutes<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__metadata\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-author t-body-small\">Eric Hochberger<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-separator t-body-small\">\u2022<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-post-card__metadata-date t-body-small\">Jul 13, 2021<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-post-card__excerpt\">Back to Blog \u2022 If you&#8217;re a new blogger, bookmark this and come back in a few years. But if you&#8217;ve been blogging for awhile, you may have already asked yourself this SEO question: Should you delete content that&#8217;s old and\/or not doing a lot for you? Looking for a quick answer? Sorry. We&#8217;re going&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/should-you-delete-content-or-just-stop-linking\/\" class=\"c-post-card__link-overlay\" aria-label=\"Read more about Should You Delete Content or Just Stop Linking? An SEO Dilemma\"><\/a>\n<\/article>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/aside>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to Blog \u2022 If you&#8217;re familiar at all with SEO, chances are you&#8217;ve heard of the meta description. What you might be surprised to learn is how to write a great one \u2014 and that this still matters in 2020. The meta description is a hidden HTML attribute at the top of your web&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,93],"tags":[],"audience_post":[],"class_list":["post-18311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","category-seo-like-a-ceo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Meta Description: Why it Matters For SEO - Mediavine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The meta description is a valuable SEO tool. Using meta tags and data helps search engines display a description of a web page so more readers click on it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediavine.com\/blog\/meta-description\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meta Description: Why it Matters For SEO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The meta description is a valuable SEO tool. 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