Title tag
The `<title>` element describing a page, used as the primary input to the clickable headline in search results — which Google may rewrite.
Technical
Meta description
A page-level summary in a `<meta name="description">` tag, used as a candidate for the search snippet but not as a ranking factor.
In full
Google generates snippets dynamically, frequently ignoring the meta description in favour of passages that match the query. A well-written description still matters because it is used for many head queries and for social and messaging previews, and because a missing one guarantees an auto-generated snippet. Duplicate descriptions across templates are flagged by crawlers and are a symptom of templating, not a penalty in themselves.
Example
A product template writes a description combining the model name, key spec and shipping promise instead of repeating the category boilerplate.
Related terms
nosnippet / max-snippet
Robots directives controlling whether and how much of a page's text a search engine may show as a snippet or use in generated summaries.
Click-through rate
Clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage; in search it measures how compelling a result is at the position and in the SERP…
Featured snippet
A block at or near the top of Google's results that quotes an extracted answer from a page, with a link to the source.
SERP
The page a search engine returns for a query, combining organic results with ads, rich results, AI-generated answers and vertical modules.
Where to read more
- How to Write Meta Descriptions and Control Snippets · Documentation · developers.google.com
- HTML Standard — Document Metadata · Standard · html.spec.whatwg.org