Can you change meta description at any time without loosing rankings?

[danielpett]

I'm wondering if it is possible to change the meta description of a page on your site at any time without it affecting rankings on google?

Is it only changing how my SERP looks? Or could bad things happen to changing your meta description?

Appreciate all opinions on this one, thank you guys!

[danielpett]

Right. Thanks for the advice again! I will definitely go for custom meta descriptions in the near future.

Cheers

[askshopper]

Actually i have seen sites thrive with the same description, How ever think of it like this when you search for a product for example say a kettle most results have the word kettle in the description and it is highlighted by Google in the search result so relevant, so if yours is the same through out the site that is not going to happen and the chances are the user will click one that has got the keyword in.

[danielpett]

Thanks askshopper!

Would having the same meta description through out the site (for a while) be a bad thing? Or could I have it like that for the time being?

I can't change them right now because of some issues with my developers atm.

[askshopper]

Yes you can change them any time, when the page gets crawled again the description will be updated  in search results, try to avoid duplicates & I also recommend  putting your keywords in the page meta but at the same time maintaining good quality description for the end user.

[danielpett]

Great, thanks Matt!

[Matt-Williamson]

Meta descriptions don't affect your rankings in search engines - they just help entice people to click on your results in the search engines - have a look here for further peace of mind - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description

So you can change them at anytime and it won't affect your rankings.