A meta description is a short summary of the page for search services and sharing tools. It may appear in search results, but the search engine can choose another excerpt.
What You Need to Know
Write one honest description for each page and match the actual content. The description is not a visible paragraph unless you also add one to body.
Think of an HTML document as a small book: the browser needs a title and some information about how to read it, while visitors need the actual chapters and text.
Example: See It in Action
Take a look at this small piece of HTML. You can use it in a practice document and change the text to make it your own.
If this is only part of a document, place metadata and style elements in the head of a complete HTML page. Keep ordinary visible content in its body.
<head>
<meta name="description" content="Try easy cooking ideas for new chefs.">
<title>Recipes for Beginners</title>
</head>Let’s Understand the Example
- The head contains useful page information for the browser, such as its title and character encoding.
- A meta element gives the browser short information about the document. Different attributes control different hints.
- The title names the page in the browser tab. It is different from the heading shown on the page.
- Name is the key the browser normally sends when a form control is submitted.
- Content stores the value supplied by a meta element.
Some of the markup affects the browser tab or page settings rather than appearing as visible text. Check the browser tab and inspector as well as the page itself.
What Should You See?
The browser tab should show “Recipes for Beginners”.
Open the page and compare what appears in the browser tab with the heading inside the document. Both have different jobs.
Try It Yourself
- Write a natural one-sentence summary for a page about your favorite hobby.
- Save your changes, open or refresh the page, and compare the result with the original example.
- Tell a friend what your change did. If you are not sure, undo it, refresh the page, and compare.
Common Beginner Mistakes
- Stuffing the description with repeated keywords or promising content the page does not have.
- The title in the browser tab and the heading visible in the page are different pieces of information.
Key Takeaways
- A meta description is a short summary of the page for search services and sharing tools.
- The head contains useful page information for the browser, such as its title and character encoding.
- Write one honest description for each page and match the actual content. The description is not a visible paragraph unless you also add one to body.