Ideal Meta Description Length

[LloydM]

Hello all;

Looking for feedback and ideas on the ideal length  for a blog or site page Meta description. The HS blog editor suggests keeping it under 155 characters. Finding that a little limited and I've read other sources (Ubersuggest from Neil Patel) that say the ideal length is around 300 to 350.

Any thoughts or comments on that?

Thanks in advance,

Lloyd

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

Hey @LloydM - great question. In addition to the thoughts above, I wanted to share my experience and a resource. Besides HubSpot, I've used (and stil use, with some volunteer work I do) other platforms. They all have their different meta description length "best practices." SquareSpace for instance allows much longer, into that 300 character range. But it does show that it gets cut off about haflway through. 

We've taken to creating engaging meta descriptions that entice the searcher to click. Sometimes that means asking a question and offering a "learn how" answer right in the description. Other times that means being conversational. And it always means including your keyword topic in the meta description, as early as possible while still being readable. That's the key. Readable, engaging, enticing and gets the point across quickly. Like great copy writing. For us, it's about user experience more that SEO best practices.

Here's a resource I like from SEMRush. 

Hope that helps! Good luck 😊

Dan

[webdew]

Hi @LloydM ,

Search engines don't have enough space, due to which they are not able to display long formatted meta descriptions on SERPs. That's why HubSpot has defined its character limit of a meta description around 155 characters. If you describe your meta description in 155 characters, then the entire content will be displayed without any cut-offs. But, if you exceed this limit, the meta description might cut in the middle. So, if you want your entire content to be displayed on the web, try to be concise and engaging at the same time.

Hope this helps.
Regards.

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[sharonlicari]

Hey @LloydM 

Welcome to the Community!

I'd encourage you to participate in this AMA about SEO and best practices with @rikkilear. He'd be happy to share some thoughts about this topic

Thanks

Sharon