How to change snippets

This is the name that Google gives to the description under the title of the page in search results. Can we change it if it does not show the idea that we want to give?

It is actually possible to change this text and make it more attractive, especially with the meta description

The results pages of search engines are becoming increasingly filled with lot of information, but one of the most important part with the title of a result, is the snippet.
Visits on a site from results depends on snippets, and a question arises, can we change them to make the description more attractive?

Google has spoken on this subject through his blog for webmasters.

Improve snippets with the meta description tag

This tag is in the head section of the page and takes the following form:

<head> 
    ... more tags ... 
    <meta name="description" content="information legible and utile">
</head>

The text assigned to the content attribute must have special qualities:

It must be written in good English and two sentences and not a series of keywords.
You must describe in the abstract, the content of the page.
It must be attractive: create a desire to see the content.

Google and the meta description

Google does it use this tag? Yes, but not always. It is used:

When the page has dynamic content that robots can not know.
When it mainly contains pictures and videos and few text.
When the query matches exactly the content of the page.

It is not used for the snippet:

When the page is a second choice to fulfill the request. It contains keywords in the request but distributed across the page.
In this case, the snippet will be made up with parts of the text on the page.
If the meta description contains a too long text or a list of keywords.
If the same description is included on several pages of the site.
If the description contains the title of the page (already in the title tag).

Other tips from Google

Using hierarchical descriptions: The description of the home page describes the site as a whole, that of a folder a summary of it and that of the page, the content of this page.

If you do not want have time to create a description for each page, do so at least for the most important pages.

Personal advice: Rather than create a meta description for every page, I put under the title of the page (that is in H1) a first paragraph that is a synthesis of content and has a chance of being used as a snippet by the engines.

Reference: Improve snippets with a meta description makeover.