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Do meta descriptions affect ranking in Google?
In a word, "No" according to this post from Google Webmaster tools which also good tips for the meta descriptions, which are nonetheless useful for other reasons I will outline.
Meta descriptions ARE important since they act as a call-to-action or contain brand messages which show the value of the brand in the SERPs.
They also need to be distinct to avoid a duplicate content penalty or they may be replaced by snippets from the page if they are not distinct. The post says: "Differentiate the descriptions for different pages".
This article explicity says that keywords contained within the meta description do not affect ranking in Google (but should still be included since other search engines and on-site search are likely to use them for ranking reasons).
It even advises against using too many keywords says "meta descriptions comprised of long strings of keywords don't achieve this goal (of accurately describing the page) and are less likely to be displayed in place of a regular, non-meta description, snippet".
- Read post Google meta description tips / ranking
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Thanks, Dave Chaffey.
