Google replacing Meta-Descriptions with its own AI summary

[ambade]

This may have weird impact on search results and site traffic… I’m hopeful that when optimised better, most descriptions AI writes will be apt based on content. We never know.

[rahil_mulla]

Google is just making life of SEO expert difficult everyday 😂😂

[bigo_bigowl]

Not a surprise, IA or not, meta description were always changed by Google. 

[dashosh]

it gives summary answer from excusively reddit threads (and maybe other forum-like search results) not replacing meta description, reddit does not even have meta description field lol.

what a misleading title from OP.

meta description on regular webstes are still there and did not disappear, just another stupid post on linkedin to get likes and exposure and the reason why i don’t like linkedin, please don’t bring this over to reddit.

[Independent_Set_1161]

always have been like this

[galaxystar992]

I’m not even surprised.

[Lxium]

It doesn’t really make a difference to anyone

[BusyBusinessPromos]

I’ve already read this somewhere. Google changing meta descriptions is not new.

[Pascal_Web]

En vrai, c’est pas si nouveau. Google fait ça depuis des années, sauf que maintenant leur IA est bien plus subtile. Elle ne se contente plus de piquer une phrase avec le mot-clé. Elle lit, comprend et synthétise un passage de votre page pour coller parfaitement à la requête de l’utilisateur.

[Healthy-Inspection20]

Meta Descriptions even before AI were not constant.

[webbox-one]

Google sometimes uses my standard meta description, but often uses one from Google. However, that was long also before the advent of artificial intelligence. I noticed (through my own research on long-tail keywords) that Google pulls its own meta from the text if it better matches the user’s search query. I actually find this quite useful.

For example my travel blog: an article mentions a city, a river, and a castle. The user searches for the castle. However, I only have space in the meta for city, region, etc.

If the user were to search for the castle using long-tail keywords, they wouldn’t click on my meta. Therefore, Google provides them with an excerpt that appears far down in my article. At first, I was annoyed (I even complained to RankMath 😂 ).

I now find the solution very intelligent; the AI ​​continues to work in exactly the same way, showing the user that something related to their search query can be found somewhere in the article.

[Sad_Jury6713]

This is not new, I am seeing this since 2022, post Passage Indexing update by Google. Almost 70% of the Meta Description are replaced by the content of the body, as Google found the script of meta description are either,

– Lengthy than the recommended Pixels or Words.

– Keyword Stuffing.

– Contextual inconsistency.

– Irrelevant to the user query.

– Duplicate Meta Description.

If your meta description is replaced, check the above conditions.

In fact, Google brings Meta description that are loved by readers in most case. So, worry not.

[ccrrr2]

Finally! But they have been doing this for a long time, hopefully they get better at it now. Soon we won’t need to do anything, Google will do all SEO, all we need is backlinks 🙂

[MCStarlight]

People know where are other browsers beside Google, right?

[AbleInvestment2866]

I still haven’t seen it; perhaps it’s just an experiment.

Anyway, I see two possibilities here:

* On the one hand, if AI descriptions are too long and get straight to the point, the already huge number of zero-click searches could become a nightmare for many websites.
* On the other hand, this could improve the random meta descriptions Google has used for years and highlight which pages are genuinely well written and satisfy user intent, and which ones are just clickbait or AI-generated junk.

That being said, **I wouldn’t get rid of descriptions.** The fact that Google hasn’t used them for years doesn’t mean the same applies to all other search engines.

Granted, Google accounts for 85–90% of searches, but **gaining an extra 10–15% of traffic for the small effort of taking a minute to write a description is, in my opinion, a very good deal.**

EDIT: if this is for Reddit or UGC websites, how will they deal with the myriad of opposing and contradictory views in 3 or 4 lines? Take this post for example, I can’t even imagine any AI taking a conclusion over anything.