Write meta descriptions that still make sense after Google cuts them
A prompt that writes meta descriptions as ad copy, puts the whole promise in the first 120 characters, and refuses to claim anything the page does not say.
- Works in
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
- You need
- The pages you want descriptions for, with their real title tags · The first 200 words of each page · The competing snippets from a real search, if you have them
- Written for
- chatgpt prompt for seo meta description
Scored by our own engine
This page, run through the audit we sell. Measured 4 August 2026.
Most meta description prompts return a summary of the page. Summaries are the wrong genre. A snippet is not there to describe the page, it is there to win a click against four other results that all rank for the same query, and a line that says “this page is about meta descriptions” gives a searcher no reason to choose it. The prompt below writes to the two constraints that actually decide the outcome: where the promise sits, and whether the page can back it up.
Truncation is not a character limit
Character counts are a proxy for the real constraint, which is pixel width. A description full of wide letters is cut earlier than one full of narrow ones, and a phone cuts earlier than a laptop. This is why writing to exactly 160 characters is a habit worth losing.
The rule that matters is where the promise sits. Rule 2 puts it inside the first 120 characters, so that the cut removes an elaboration rather than the point. Read the first 120 characters column in the output as though it were the whole snippet, because for a large share of your readers it is.
The rule people delete
Rule 4 says every specific in a description must appear in the page text you pasted. It gets cut because it makes the descriptions blander, and because the model occasionally comes back and says a page is too vague to describe.
That refusal is the most useful output on the page. A model that cannot find one concrete promise in your first 200 words has told you something true about the page, and no amount of copywriting fixes it at the snippet level. The alternative is worse than blandness: without rule 4, models cheerfully add a free trial you do not offer, a delivery window you cannot meet, or a number nobody has measured. Those descriptions convert well and produce bounces, which is the one outcome worse than a low click through rate.
Check what the page actually serves
The last step is the one people skip and it costs the whole exercise. SEO plugins, caching layers and category templates overwrite this field without saying so, and the description in your CMS is not evidence of the description on your page. Run the URL through the meta description checker after publishing to see what the live page returns, and check the title at the same time, since the two are read together in a result and rule 5 only pays off if both halves are real.
You are writing meta descriptions. Treat each one as ad copy for a placement I
already own, not as a summary of the page.
Rules you must follow:
1. Write one description per page, and never a variation of the same sentence
across several pages. Duplicated descriptions are a template problem, and
if I had a template I would not be asking you.
2. Put the whole promise inside the first 120 characters. Search engines cut
snippets on pixel width rather than character count, and mobile cuts
earlier than desktop, so a line that only makes sense once you reach the
end is a line nobody reads.
3. Keep each description between 120 and 155 characters and give me the exact
count. Count the characters, do not estimate them, and if you are not
certain of a count say so next to that row.
4. Every specific in a description must appear in the page text I pasted. No
numbers, prices, features, guarantees or claims that are not on the page.
If a page contains nothing specific enough to promise, do not invent
something: tell me the page is too vague to describe and name the one
thing it would need to add.
5. Do not restate the title tag. The two lines sit together in the result, and
using both to say the same thing wastes the only two lines I get.
6. Do not open with any of these: "Discover", "Learn more about", "In this
article", "Everything you need to know", "Looking for". They spend the
front of the line, which is the part that survives truncation, on nothing.
7. If I gave you the competing snippets, every description must offer a reason
to click that those snippets do not already claim, and you must say which
competitor you are differentiating against.
Output a markdown table with these columns:
URL | Meta description | Characters | The first 120 characters, quoted | What it promises that the page genuinely delivers
After the table, give me:
- Any page you could not write an honest description for, with the one thing
that page would have to add.
- Any page where the title and the description are saying the same thing, and
which of the two you would change.
Constraints:
- Do not write a description from the URL or the title alone. If I have not
pasted the page text, ask me for it rather than guessing what the page says.
- Do not tell me this will improve rankings. It will not. It changes the click
on a ranking I already have.
What I sell and why these pages are worth clicking: [ONE SENTENCE ON WHAT YOU SELL AND TO WHOM]
The query each page targets: [ONE QUERY PER PAGE, OR WRITE "unknown"]
Competing snippets: [PASTE THE SNIPPETS FROM A REAL SEARCH, OR WRITE "none"]
The pages: [FOR EACH PAGE, PASTE THE URL, THE CURRENT TITLE TAG AND THE FIRST 200 WORDS]What to change
Everything in square brackets is yours to replace. Nothing else needs editing.
[ONE SENTENCE ON WHAT YOU SELL AND TO WHOM]- The difference between a description that summarises and one that sells. "We do free technical SEO checks for people who have never used a crawler" produces a completely different line from "SEO tools", because the first one contains somebody to write to and the second one does not.
[ONE QUERY PER PAGE, OR WRITE "unknown"]- The query decides which half of the page belongs in the snippet. A page about meta descriptions targeting "how long should a meta description be" needs the length in the first 120 characters, and the same page targeting "meta description examples" needs the examples. Take these from Search Console rather than from memory.
[PASTE THE SNIPPETS FROM A REAL SEARCH, OR WRITE "none"]- Copy the three descriptions currently above you in the results. This is what activates rule 7 and it is the whole reason the output is different from generic copy: a description that says the same thing as the result above it gives nobody a reason to skip past. Search in an incognito window so you see what a stranger sees.
[FOR EACH PAGE, PASTE THE URL, THE CURRENT TITLE TAG AND THE FIRST 200 WORDS]- The source material rule 4 is checked against. Include the real title tag, not the H1, since they often differ and rule 5 compares against what actually renders in the result. Five to ten pages at a time is the sweet spot, because past that the descriptions start converging on each other.
How to run it
- 01Pick the pages where a snippet decides the click
Open Search Console, sort by impressions and find the pages with plenty of impressions and a low click through rate. Those are pages already ranking where the snippet is losing the click, which is exactly the situation a rewrite can fix. A page with no impressions has a ranking problem, not a description problem.
- 02Collect the real title tag and the first 200 words
View source or run each URL through the meta description checker to read the title and description the page actually serves. Plugins and templates overwrite these regularly, so the version in your CMS is not always the version a searcher sees.
- 03Copy the competing snippets from a real search
Search the target query in an incognito window and copy the three descriptions ranking above you, word for word. This is the input most people skip and it is the one that stops the model writing a line that is already on the page.
- 04Run the prompt and check the character counts yourself
Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with all four inputs filled in. Then check the counts, because language models see tokens rather than letters and their character counts drift. The prompt asks for the number so you have something to verify, not because the number is trustworthy.
- 05Read only the first 120 characters column
Cover the rest of the table and read that column as though it were the entire snippet, because on a phone it often is. If a line stops making sense at the cut, the promise was in the wrong half and the description needs rewriting rather than trimming.
- 06Publish, then confirm the live page serves what you wrote
Push the descriptions and recheck the live URL, since SEO plugins, caching layers and category templates all overwrite this field quietly. Then leave it alone for a few weeks: click through rate needs enough impressions to mean anything before you judge the change.
Questions people ask
What is the best ChatGPT prompt for a meta description?
One that asks for ad copy rather than a summary, and that constrains where the promise sits. Telling the model to put the whole promise inside the first 120 characters, to use only facts that appear in the page text, and to differentiate against the snippets already ranking is what separates a usable description from a restatement of the title.
How long should a meta description be?
Between 120 and 155 characters is the safe range, though the real limit is pixel width rather than characters, so a line of wide letters is cut earlier than a line of narrow ones. Mobile results cut earlier than desktop. The practical rule is to write the whole promise into the first 120 characters and treat everything after that as a bonus that may never be read.
Can ChatGPT count characters accurately?
Not reliably. Models read text as tokens rather than letters, so character counts come out approximate and can be off by ten or more. The prompt asks for a count anyway because it gives you a number to check against a real counter, and a model that is asked to state a length at least writes to a length.
Why does Google rewrite my meta description anyway?
Because it will use whatever it thinks answers the query better, and it rewrites often. That is an argument for writing descriptions that match the query the page targets, not an argument for leaving the field empty. When the field is empty the rewrite is guaranteed and the source is whatever text the page happens to have near the top, which is frequently a navigation fragment or a cookie notice.
Do meta descriptions affect rankings?
No, not directly. They affect the click through rate on a ranking you already hold, which is why the prompt forbids the model from claiming otherwise. Two results in the same position with different snippets do not earn the same traffic, and that gap is the entire value of writing one by hand.
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