Are Meta Descriptions Dead?

I remember the first time I came across a blank meta description on a reasonably popular site and thought,

“Who the heck owns SEO here?”

For years, I’ve preached that meta descriptions don’t directly influence rankings. Sure, your keyword might get bolded in the SERP, which can draw the eye and boost CTR, which over time can nudge rankings—but stuffing keywords into meta descriptions, hoping to send SEO signals to Google? That’s a fool’s errand.

We’ve always focused on value prop: mention the keyword only if it makes sense for the reader, not the algorithm.

But then Mark Williams-Cook, founder of AlsoAsked and director at Candour, ran a test that challenged even that. His team removed meta descriptions entirely and saw a consistent 3% uplift in organic traffic. Why? Because Google rewrites about 80% of them anyway. Without a static description, Google is more likely to generate a snippet tailored to the search query, and often, it performs better.

Jono Alderson rightly opposes SEO testing in live environments: there are too many variables, not enough control, and a tendency to focus on what’s measurable instead of what’s meaningful.

But for lean marketing teams, that’s kind of the point.

Here’s the real takeaway:

If Google’s going to rewrite your meta descriptions anyway...why are your writers (and let's be honest...AI) still spending time on them?

For most B2B teams, it’s time to rethink what’s worth the effort. Meta descriptions aren’t dead, but they’re not a priority either.

Focus on content structure, intent alignment, internal links, and the things that compound. SEO is full of legacy tasks that look important but don’t move the needle. This is one of them.