When you use an online search engine to look for something online, you get tons of results to choose between. You could click through as many as you like until you find the page you're looking for, or you can read the page descriptions of each result. For example, when looking at a search engine results page (SERP) after typing in your search query, you'll see the page title with a short description below it, which is called the meta description.
Meta descriptions inform users about what to expect when they visit your web page. These descriptions are not visible on the web pages themselves. Rather, they appear on SERPs to help users decide whether they should click on a web page.
An optimized meta description can increase a business' organic traffic. Unfortunately, many small business owners don't realize they can impact what's shown on search engines like Google. Meta descriptions help convince a user to click a result, so they must be optimized to help individuals understand the content on a page while prompting them to click on the page.