Meta Description - Beyond 155 - Still Alive?

I've read lots of posts discussing length and/or utility of the meta description tag. So really 2 questions here.

1) If Google (say search engines in general) utilizes up to about 155 characters in a search results snippet, does it do anything with excess? Is there any value in adding a sentence or so beyond 155?

2) If a webmaster has left meta description blank, do search engines grab the first general content of the page to populate the snippet or do they selectively/randomly grab some content? Or other?

 

Google will grab a snippet of your text if you dont have a meta description. The Meta description is also actually about 165 characters and should be used to engage visitors as Google does not use it in terms of search rankings. Its like a mini advert

 

PRweb is a good provider for SEO and Public Relation and Page Rank Visibility company. If Google Says it's good for search engine rankings them use those terms to valuate keywords.. use keyword spy it works pretty well to see what is going on in your keywords

 

Google does use the meta description as a way of finding relecant keywords. If you emphasize your keywords in the meta description, then of course, it is going to not only sound, but look more relevant.

From the experience that I hafve, and my broad knowledge, yes, it most certainly does influence your relevancy to Google results.

From my understanding also, anything outsite the 165 limit will be discarded and not referred to, but correct me if I am wrong on that, to be honest, I have never thought it it. I can promise that if you were to go over that limit though, if it were counted, if anything it would reduce keyword potency if you stuffed in a ton of keywords.

 

Redthehat.....Google does NOT use the meta description for search rankings...do your research before you give bad advice? This is straight from the horses mouth - Matt Cutts

 

[correction]
Nahm this is incorrect info.You read that page wrong. I did a write up for you below, hopefully that helps.
Either way, I would appriate it if you would stop following me around DP trying to prove me wrong in all points that I am making as of late. It is not professional, and especially when you quote something, and then provide a source that actually proves you wrong, it is pretty much laughable.

 

@redthehat @Ecommerce Development @twiztedX3 thanks for giving answers to my post

 

But meta tags still play a key role in the optimization of the website.

 

Of course, anything in these tags that is a keyword, or places further emphasis on your keyword will basically say what the site is about and what your content relates to. Links to that site will then in effect be a link to that site which is based on these keywords, etc etc.

It has been known for some time that Google dont list people based on their keywords alone, Google rankings are about relevancy to those keywords that are on site, in your header, and offsite (Link anchor text, etc etc), and most importantly, the amount of people who are linking to you and who is linking to you.Having said that, the right keywords do have some impact on your results, and how well you dominate them.

Google are great at giving small amounts of information and allowing that informatiuon to be perceived either one way or the other. Even funnier are the chinese whispers that follow soon after.

Here is a great example:

and, to add further insult to injury:

I'm sorry, which Matt Cutts? Surely cant be this one from the same blog can it?

Source - Google Webmaster Blog