Which tool to choose
For this job any general-purpose AI assistant in its free version is fine: the latest available model of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini writes correct English descriptions with no practical difference. Choose the one you already use.
One distinction matters when you have many pages. If you have to describe five blog articles, you work by hand one at a time. If you have three hundred, it's better to use an assistant that accepts a pasted list and returns the descriptions in a table: Claude handles long texts pasted all together well, and it's the most convenient choice for batch work.
How to do it
From browser or app, the path doesn't change. The description is written by looking at the real content of the page, not from memory.
- Open the page you want to describe and copy the main text: the title and the first two or three paragraphs are enough.
- Paste it into the AI assistant and use the request below.
- Read the three proposals and choose the one you'd say out loud to a customer, not the most "brochure-like" one.
- Count the characters: your website's CMS (WordPress, Shopify, Wix) has a dedicated field that shows the counter. Under 150 characters you're safe on all phones.
The operational syntax:
This is a page of my site. Write me three meta descriptions in English, each of about 150 characters including spaces. Each description must concretely say what someone who clicks will find and give a reason to click. Put the most important information at the start, because on a phone the end gets cut off. No vague phrases like "find out more". Here is the content:
[paste the page text here]
After pasting the description into the site, check one detail: Google rewrites the meta description very often, about seven times out of ten, choosing a piece of your page itself. Your version still remains the starting point it prefers when it's clear and fitting, so it's worth writing it well even knowing it won't always be shown word for word.
A concrete example
You have a pastry shop and a page dedicated to made-to-order birthday cakes. You paste the page text into the AI with the request above. The assistant proposes: "Handmade made-to-order birthday cakes in Verona: choose flavour, decoration and number of servings. In-store pickup or same-day delivery."
That's 137 characters. It says the product, the city, what you can customize and how to receive it. You paste it into the "meta description" field of your site, save, and when someone searches "birthday cake Verona" that's what they might read before deciding whether to come in.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If the AI writes descriptions that are all the same
It happens when you paste ten similar pages (ten products of the same type) and the assistant repeats the same scheme. Identical or near-identical descriptions on different pages harm ranking: Google tends to hide some of them. Fix: ask explicitly "each description must open with a different, specific detail of that single product" and give the AI the data that changes (the flavour, the size, the material).
If the description overruns the line and gets cut off
Your field in the site marks green up to a certain point, then turns red. If the important message ends up in the cut part, you've lost the sentence that convinces. Fix: ask the AI to rewrite it "moving the decisive information into the first 120 characters", so even on the narrowest phone the part that matters stays visible.
If you can't find the field where to write it
Some site themes don't show the "meta description" field plainly: you need a plugin (on WordPress, a search-engine optimization tool) or it's hidden in the page's advanced settings. Fix: ask the AI "where do I set the meta description on [name of your system]" and let it guide you; if it really doesn't appear, that plugin adds it in a few minutes.
A tip from someone who actually uses it
Don't write the description right after writing the page, when you're still inside the text. Leave it for last, when you've forgotten the details: you'll write what stays in a stranger's mind, which is exactly the effect it has on a searcher. And keep one rule: the description promises what the page delivers. If you promise "free shipping" and it's not on the page, whoever clicks leaves at once and Google notices.
Frequently asked questions
How long should the meta description be?
Aim for about 150 characters, including spaces, and don't exceed 160. Google doesn't count characters but the space occupied on screen, and on a phone the space is less than on a computer. Under 150 you're safe everywhere.
Should I put in the words people search for?
Yes, once, inside a normal sentence. If you sell hiking boots, the phrase "hiking boots" fits well once. Repeating it three times doesn't help ranking and makes the sentence ugly to read: the reader feels the forcing and clicks less.
If Google rewrites it anyway, why waste time writing it?
Because when yours is clear and matches the search, Google uses it as is and you control the first impression. When it's missing or generic, Google fishes a random sentence from the page, often a half-piece that entices no one. Writing it is the only way not to leave that choice to chance.