# Meta Description Tag: Syntax and How Google Uses It > The meta description tag gives a short page summary. Syntax, HTML rules, and how Google and Yandex use it for snippets or replace it with page text. The meta description tag holds a short summary of a page. Search engines can show it as the snippet, the text under the title in search results. Google and Yandex can also write the snippet from page text instead. Give each important page a unique description that matches its content. ## Syntax ```html ``` The [HTML standard](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#meta-description) says that the value is free-form text that describes the page. It must be suitable for a directory of pages, for example a search engine. A document must not have more than one `description` meta tag. ## How Google uses the meta description Google lists `description` in its [supported meta tags](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags). Its [snippet documentation](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet) gives these facts: - Google creates snippets mainly from the page content. - Google sometimes uses the meta description if it describes the page better than text from the page. - The snippet can be different for different searches, because Google picks the text that best matches each query. - There is no limit on the length of a meta description. Google shortens the snippet as necessary, usually to fit the width of the device. The last point means that a fixed number of characters, such as 155, is not a Google rule. In a [2009 post](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag), Google said that it does not use the description meta tag for ranking. The same post says that Google ignores the keywords meta tag. See the [meta keywords guide](/html-tags/meta-keywords/). ## Google's advice for good descriptions - Write a unique description for each page. Identical or similar descriptions on many pages do not help. - Use a site-level description on the home page and on other pages that list content. Use page-level descriptions everywhere else. - If you cannot write all of them, start with the most important pages, such as the home page and popular pages. - Include facts about the page. For example, give the author and date of an article, or the price and maker of a product. - On large sites, you can generate descriptions from page data. Google says that this is acceptable if the result is readable and varied. - Do not use a long list of keywords. Google says that such descriptions are less likely to be shown. ## How Yandex uses the meta description Yandex lists the tag in its [meta tag help](https://yandex.com/support/webmaster/en/controlling-robot/metatags). Its [description guide](https://yandex.com/support/webmaster/en/indexing-options/description) says that the tag is a source for snippets. Yandex can also make snippets from page content, so users can see different text for different queries. The width of the screen limits the length. Yandex adds these recommendations: - Add the tag to all pages, and make each description unique. Yandex says that template descriptions are likely not to be shown. - Put the important information at the start. - Make the description different from the ` ` of the page. - Write the description in the language of the page. ## Control or block snippets The meta description does not stop Google from showing other page text. To control the snippet in Google, use robots rules: - ` ` stops Google from showing a text snippet for the page. - ` ` sets a maximum snippet length in characters. The number in this example is only a sample. - The `data-nosnippet` attribute on an HTML element keeps that part of the page out of snippets. The [meta robots guide](/html-tags/meta-robots/) explains these rules. ## What the meta description does not do - It does not decide the snippet. Google and Yandex can show other text from the page. - It does not help ranking in Google, according to Google's 2009 post. - It does not show on the page itself. --- [View the canonical page](https://aichatwatch.com/html-tags/meta-description/) ยท [Browse llms.txt](https://aichatwatch.com/llms.txt)