Meta description is like a over view of search engine. Google use meta description to generate search results and Google show meta description to user when they search for something. If you not use any meta description then Google pick some relevant lines from the content to give some results.
Meta description plays a very important role to increase CTR (Click Through Rate). If your web page has an attractive meta description, then you have more chances to engage the visitors on Google SERP. Google doesn't give any value to meta description, but if you don't want to leave any change to engage the visitor, then you must wright simple, attractive and informative meta description for your every web page.
I've noticed that some social networking sites use the meta description tag to describe a submitted link. So there's that.
The search world is continously changing but one thing is constant: Websites with quality content that meet the needs of those searching for that content, and that provide a user-friendly experience, will win in the SERPs. This all starts with your meta descriptions which is essentially the welcome mat to your site's virtual doorway. Be sure to incorporate these tips to ensure you're presenting the best first impression you can.
Google doesn't use the meta description as much as it used to. Still good to use it I guess. Google uses content from the site more than the meta desription now.
Not really if you search your own sites in google you will notice google doesn't really show meta descriptions anymore... it shows part of the articles. shows whatever is relevant to the person's search term.
If you don't add meta then google takes the first few lines of an article as the meta. you have to write this in search preference in blogger or you have to write in yoast in wordpress
Like I explained above google goes through the whole article and takes parts from it related to the persons search term. So if you have an article on "sauce" and you have the words "best" "natural" "hot" in the article somewhere and someone searches "best hot natural sauce" google will find those words then put them in the meta for the person searching. Even if there is a custom meta description google might not use it. Or if the person searches "hot sauce" it will go through the whole article and find those two words. google doesn't just take the first lines in the article anymore... they started this a while ago. Yoast even said in this article that google pulls random words from articles. I just did a search and the meta isn't the first lines of the article and it also isn't a custom meta... it's random sections from the page to best fit the search term. It even found the word "good" and I didn't even search for it but google thought it might be related to my search. What I'm trying to say is putting in a meta description is recommended but 90% of the time now google will not use the specific meta description you have put in... google is smarter than that now. I also explain it in the video in my article on keyword research This is why people have trouble with SEO because they don't keep up with google updates and techniques. What google says hope this helped you op. Long story short meta descriptions are reccomended but google will not always use them.
It help in website ranking mostly website ranked not only by Title tag but also from their description tag.