The SEO page title and meta description show up for each page in search results. These tiny pieces of content, which amount to about 230 characters of text total, are supposed to entice people to your pages.

The job of the page title and meta description is to give people an idea of what they’ll find on your page so they can decide whether to click your link. It’s a big deal, which is why many marketers put a lot of effort into these tiny blurbs.

But did you know Google might not display the copy you created for your meta? The search engine often makes its own decision about what’s best in those spots.

Why Would Google Override Your Meta?

Google doesn’t delete your work or permanently replace it. Instead, it might make an on-the-fly decision to pull other content from your page and show it to a specific searcher. The reason the Google AI might do this is because it thinks the content it selects is more pertinent to the searcher’s intent than your meta is.

For example, you might have a page about window repairs. The page might cover a variety of topics, including when repairs are better than replacements, what repairs cost, and how to choose a window repair professional. Your meta description would, consequently, be fairly general to the topic of window repair.

If someone searches for “costs for window repairs,” Google might pull a snippet from your section on repair costs to display instead of the meta you originally set. It’s more relevant to the search.

Then Why Create Meta at All?

Just because Google decides to intervene sometimes doesn’t mean you can give up creating meta for your home improvement marketing content pages. To remain as in control as possible of your message, always set your own page title and metas. If Google wants to do you a favor here and there by targeting the individual searcher even more, that’s just icing on the cake.