Google Decreases the Length of Meta Descriptions

Google has confirmed that it has decreased the length of search snippets.

Danny Sullivan of Google tweeted: “Our search snippets are now shorter on average than in recent weeks, though slightly longer than before a change we made last December. There is no fixed length for snippets. Length varies based on what our systems deem to be most useful.”

Here’s a quick summary of Google’s most recent meta description changes and what you need to do…

What has changed?

Google once displayed snippets with long meta descriptions (around 320 characters). These snippets are now back to their old length (between 150 and 170 characters).

What should you do?

If you’ve made your meta descriptions longer than 150 characters, we would advise you to go back to your most important articles and adjust them. This is because Google will no longer show the long descriptions, meaning they could be cut short. Try to rewrite them to fit Google’s new rule.
TIP – It is best to start with the most important information first. That way, if the length changes again, you can be confident that the key details will still be included.

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