Meta descriptions that get the click, not the impression

The length advice is easy and everybody publishes it: around 150 to 160 characters, with the important part inside the first 120 so it survives on a phone. Fine. That is the container, not the contents.

The harder question, and the one nothing written about this answers, is what a local business should put in the space, because you are not competing against what the guides assume you are.

What you are actually up against

Open a local search on a phone. Above your result there are three map listings, each with a star rating, a review count, a distance and an opening status. Below you are nine other local businesses.

The reader is not evaluating your writing. They are working through a short checklist: are they near me, are they open, do they do the thing, roughly what does it cost, are they any good. The map results answer three of those before your description is read at all.

What belongs in it

Facts that settle a decision. Two or three of these, in the customer's words:

• The suburbs or area you cover, which is the single most common reason a local click does not happen.
• Availability, where it matters. Same day, 24 hours, weekends, no waiting list.
• A price anchor. A callout fee, a from price, or that quotes are free and fixed.
• A qualifier that separates you: licensed, insured, no callout fee, family run for twenty years, the brand you are accredited for.

Four rewrites

Before:
We are committed to providing exceptional plumbing
services with a focus on quality and customer
satisfaction. Contact us today for a free quote.

After:
Licensed plumbers across Chermside, Kedron and
Stafford. Same day callouts, $89 callout fee
deducted from the job. Emergency work 24/7.

The first says nothing that would not be true of every plumber in the country. The second answers where, when and how much in 148 characters.

Before:
Plumber Brisbane, Brisbane plumber, emergency
plumber Brisbane, best plumbers Brisbane, blocked
drains Brisbane, hot water Brisbane.

After:
Blocked drains and burst pipes across Brisbane's
northside. Fixed price quoted before we start.
Most jobs done same day.

Descriptions are not a ranking factor, so the first version spends its entire budget on something that does not work, in a way visible to every human reading it.

Before, on all 14 pages:
Mill Road Plumbing is Brisbane's trusted plumbing
service since 2009. Quality workmanship guaranteed.

After, on the hot water page:
Hot water not working? We repair and replace all
brands, usually same day. Fixed price quoted before
we start. Northside Brisbane.

Before:
When it comes to choosing a plumber in Brisbane,
there are many factors to consider. In this article
we will look at what makes a good plumber and how...

After:
What a plumber should cost in Brisbane, what a
callout fee covers, and the three questions to ask
before you agree to any job.

The first is what happens when nobody writes one and the system takes the opening sentence. It reads as an essay introduction, because it is.

Google will often rewrite it anyway

This is the part the guides skate over. Google generates its own description when it judges yours a poor match for the specific query, and for a page that ranks across several different searches this happens frequently.

Two things follow, and they are more useful than the length advice. Writing one is still worth it, because it is used when it fits and a good one fits more often. And the way to keep yours is to make it an accurate summary of the page rather than a marketing sentence, since a mismatch is exactly what triggers the rewrite. The same habit is what gets a page used in an AI Overview.

The check

1. 01Search the term you want to win, on a phone, from where a customer would be.
2. 02Read the ten descriptions that come back, yours included.
3. 03Ask which one a stranger would pick. Not which is best written.
4. 04If yours is interchangeable with three others, it is not doing anything. Put a fact in it that they cannot copy.

The line above the description is doing the heavier work and is worth the same attention: title tags for a local business covers six rewrites of that. Both sit inside the on-page picture.