Skip to main content

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

This is a prototype. The information on this site is not official.

Meta page description

Status

  1. Research completed
  2. Draft completed
  3. Pending
  4. Standard not completed

Pending

Agencies should plan to implement this standard. Compliance will be required by September 26, 2025.

Standard

Summarize the content of the page in the meta description tag. The description should be unique and include key information about the page content.

Why

The meta description supports accessibility and discoverability. The meta description will often appear in search results pages instead of a snippet of page content. The description, along with the HTML page title, helps a person decide whether or not to click a search result.

Applies to

Public-facing websites of executive branch federal agencies

Acceptance criteria

These conditions must be met to comply with this standard.

  • Every page of your site must have a unique meta page description.
  • Meta page descriptions must be at least 50 characters to ensure that they provide enough detail about the page’s content.

How to implement

  • Include a description in the meta description tag for every page of your website. The meta description tag is part of the <head> section of a web page.
  • Page descriptions should summarize the content of a page. Descriptions should be written in plain language and include the most important information.
  • Try to keep descriptions to between 50 and 160 characters. Descriptions that are too short might not include enough information about the content of the page. Descriptions that are too long often get truncated on search results pages.

Examples

These examples show the HTML code for meta page descriptions.

<meta name="description" content="Find out how to check the status of certain VA claims, decision reviews, or appeals online.">

<meta name="description" content="Learn steps you can take to lower your risk for health problems from high blood pressure, such as heart disease and stroke."/>

Read more

Last updated 

standards.digital.gov

official website of the U.S. General Services Administration

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov