Google’s John Mueller said the length of your meta descriptions do not matter to the Google search ranking algorithm. He said on X, “I’m sorry to tell you, those numbers are all made up” when someone referenced specific numbers.

Khushal Bherwani, who sends us a ton of tips here, posted on X saying a client told him that “meta description length matters.” He said the client said 200-300 characters are not good and he should make those meta descriptions 155-160 characters “as per Google algorithm”

John Mueller replied saying, nope, that is not true. So now Khushal can go back to his client and show him this proof, right from a Googler.

Here are those tweets:

I’m sorry to tell you, those numbers are all made up. Whoever told them to you is leading you astray, probably not just in this regard (and I hope you’re not telling them to clients).

— Expert prompt engineer with 8+ yrs experience, ama (@JohnMu) September 11, 2023

Of course, snippet length is different, in terms of what might drive a higher click through rate but in terms of rankings, they have no real impact.

Forum discussion at X.