What is a good meta description length?

The numbers

Practical target: say the essential thing in the first 120 characters, then use up to 160 for the rest. Nothing is penalised for being longer — it is simply cut off.

It does not affect ranking. It affects everything after ranking.

Google has confirmed the meta description is not a ranking factor. It is the sentence under your link in the results, which decides whether anyone clicks — and click-through rate does influence how the result performs over time.

So treat it as advertising copy, not as metadata.

What a good one does

• Answers the query implicitly. Somebody searching "how long should a meta description be" should see the answer in the description.
• Says something specific. "Learn more about our services" is filler. "Emergency callout within two hours across Bristol, seven days a week" is a reason to click.
• Contains the search terms naturally. Google bolds matched terms, which draws the eye. Do not stuff — just write about the subject.
• Is unique per page. Duplicated descriptions across a site are a reliable signal of templated, low-effort content.

Google will often rewrite it anyway

Roughly two-thirds of the time, Google replaces your description with text pulled from the page, if it thinks that better matches the query. This is not a failure and there is no way to prevent it, short of nosnippet, which removes the snippet entirely and costs far more than it gains.

The practical implication is useful though: because Google pulls from body text, having the answer stated plainly in the page improves your snippet even when your description is ignored.

Where to spend the effort

1. Make sure every page has one. A missing description is a missed opportunity, not a penalty.
2. Make each one unique. Duplicates across dozens of pages are the most common fault.
3. Write for the click, not for the character count.
4. Set og:description too — it drives how the link looks when shared, which most sites forget.