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Add a description that earns the click
Your page has no meta description, or the one it has is too short to be useful or so long it gets cut off.
Why it matters
The description is the grey paragraph under your title in Google. It does not change your ranking directly, but it decides whether someone clicks your result or the one underneath. Writing it is free, and it is the closest thing you have to a shop window.
How you would notice it
- Google shows a random sentence scraped from your page as the description.
- The snippet ends mid-sentence with an ellipsis.
- A shared link shows no preview text at all.
What to do
Stage 1
- Open the head section of the page you want to improve.
- Add a meta description between 60 and 160 characters. Write it as a reason to click, not a summary.
<meta name="description" content="Same-day emergency plumbing across Fresno. Licensed, insured, and on site within the hour. Call now for a free quote.">Stage 2
- Write a different description for each important page. The service page and the contact page should not read the same.
- Keep it under about 160 characters so it is not cut off.
Count the characters before you publish. Anything past roughly 160 is invisible.
How to check it worked
Confirm it worked
Search for your business name in Google about a week after the change. Under the title you should see your new sentence, ending in a full stop rather than being chopped. Re-run the Siege Test and confirm the Meta description check turns green.