TL;DR:
The title and description are the two lines a person reads in a search result before deciding to click. Make them say plainly what the page is.
Put the clear topic first, keep both short enough not to be cut off, and give every page its own.
Check how the result looks in a search preview or by searching for your page, and fix any that are cut off or repeated.
Search for your own business and look at your pages in the results. Several may start with the word "Home", or all carry the same long line about your company. A person scanning that list cannot tell which page is the one they need.
The page title and description are what a search engine usually shows for your page, though it may rewrite them. They are small pieces of text with a big job: tell a stranger, in a second, whether this page answers their question.
When you need to write them
You write them when you publish a new page, and again when a page's purpose changes or when you notice a page showing up under a vague title. On most website builders and publishing tools there is a field for each, often found in the page's settings. The labels differ between tools, so look in your own tool's help page for where to enter them.
Know the page before you write about it
Answer three questions in a sentence each. What is this page? Who is it for? What will they get or be able to do here? If you cannot answer them, the page itself may be unclear, and no title can rescue that.
Then think of what a person would type to find it. You do not need research tools for this. Write the words a customer would use in an email to you, not the words in your internal project name.
The title: topic first, name last
Lead with the clear topic, in the words a visitor would use.
Add your site or business name at the end, separated by a bar or a colon.
Keep it short. Search results cut off long titles, and the exact point depends on the width of the characters, so test how yours displays rather than counting on one number.
Don't repeat the same word several times to get attention. It looks pushy and wastes space.
The description: one or two plain sentences
The description expands on the title: what is on the page, and a reason to click. Write it as a natural sentence, not a list of keywords. Include a concrete detail, such as a day, a range or a thing the visitor can do.
Descriptions are also trimmed when long. Aim for a sentence or two that make sense even if the second one is cut off, so put the most useful part first.
Worked example: rewriting a page title
Take a small bakery's menu page. The current title is just "Home" and the description field is empty, so a search engine picks some text from the page itself. This is an invented example.
Say what the page is: It is the winter bread menu, and it also lists weekend workshops.
Write the title: "Winter bread menu and weekend workshops | Maple Street Bakery". Lead with the topic, end with the name.
Check its length: That title is 61 characters long, counting spaces. That is on the long side, so look at it in a search preview or in the browser tab. If it is cut off, shorten the topic part first and keep the name.
Write the description: "See this winter's loaves, what each tastes like and when to order. Baking workshops run on Saturdays, with sign-up open now." It is 124 characters, and the first sentence stands alone if the rest is cut.
Compare with the other pages: The contact page gets "Opening hours, address and how to order | Maple Street Bakery". No two pages share a title now.
Before, a person saw "Home" and nothing useful. After, they see the topic, a reason to click and who runs the site. The page itself did not change at all.
Mistakes to avoid
The same title on every page. Each page needs its own, or the results cannot tell them apart.
Leaving the field blank and letting the tool fill in something odd.
Writing a promise the page does not keep. If the description says "free guide" and there is none, people leave.
Cramming in keywords. Write for the reader first.
Never checking. Search for the page a few days after changing it. Search engines can take time to update, and they may show their own wording instead.
Doing it faster
Make a small spreadsheet with one row per page: the web address, the current title, the new title, the new description and a character count with the formula =LEN(C2) for a title in C2. Sort by address and look for duplicates. When you want a second reader on your screen while you edit, DuckyHelper can look at the page and tell you what it would expect from the title.
Frequently asked questions
Will search engines always show what I write?
Not always. They may choose different text to show for a particular search. A clear title and description still give them a good option.
Should the title match the main heading on the page?
They can be similar, but they do not have to be identical. The title is written for the list of results, and the heading for the person already on the page.
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