How To Write A Meta Description That Gets Click-Throughs?

Google has long held that meta descriptions do not impact search engine rankings. From a 2007 post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Google reiterated this point yet again in 2009 in a post stating that the meta keywords tag was not used as a ranking signal.

Thus, people have long neglected meta descriptions, pushing them to the back burner or delegating their creation to the lowly intern. Once written, meta descriptions are scarcely given a second glance or further consideration.

Meta descriptions get short shrift because well-written descriptions won’t help your site rank.

Optimized Meta Descriptions ARE Important For SEO:

The relationship between the meta description and search engine rankings can be described in four points:

• The content in a meta description does not factor into the search ranking algorithm.
• User behavior is factored into the search algorithm.
• Specifically, click-through rate (CTR) is part of the algorithmic ranking process.
• The meta description is the most important feature for improving click-through rate from search results pages.