B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Dated
71%
71% -- meta description rewrite rate for Google (2020)
Google rewrote meta descriptions roughly 71% of the time in a 2020 study by Portent.
- Study found this rate fluctuated over time
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
71%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2020
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
50
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Portent
Primary
Tier C
https://www.bestseo.sg/blog/meta-description-seo/ ↗
Source Article
Meta Descriptions in SEO: 11 Best Practices That Actually Move the Needle
Original Research
Portent
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Portent study of Google SERP snippet rewriting behavior
Methodology documented
Trend Over Time
| Period | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 (current) | 71% | |
| 2025 | 68% | -4.2% |
| 2025 | 62.78% | -7.7% |
| 2025 | 71% | +13.1% |
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
Google: 71% meta description rewrite rate. Source: Portent (2020). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/google-rewrites-meta-descriptions-71pct
HTML Embed
<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/google-rewrites-meta-descriptions-71pct" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>71%</strong> -- meta description rewrite rate for Google<br><small>Source: Portent (2020) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/google-rewrites-meta-descriptions-71pct" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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