Are you one of the many who wrote longer Meta Descriptions to match the extended snippets shown in the search results? Google is now rolling things back and shortening the display again.
At the turn of the year, Google changed how long snippets were displayed for organic results, increasing the length to around 320 characters. At that time, we chose not to recommend any changes, and we’re a bit proud of that decision—it turned out our concerns were justified.
In a response to Barry Schwartz, Danny Sullivan—who recently joined Google as a spokesperson for search-related issues—wrote the following:
Our search snippets are now shorter on average than in recent weeks, though slightly longer than before the changes we made in December. There is no fixed length for snippets. Length varies depending on what our systems deem most helpful.
For those who manage a large number of pages, such as an extensive product catalog, this can cause major problems. Not only do you need to revert from longer descriptions, but Google also suggests that you should have varying lengths for different occasions or search results. This is, of course, impossible to manage on many sites.
My guess is that with this change, Google wants to move away from displaying Meta Descriptions altogether and instead generate their own explanations of the content on indexed pages.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.