What should I write in my Google Business Profile description?

Write what your company does, where it works and who it serves, in plain sentences a homeowner can take in within a few seconds. The description is the one place on a Google Business Profile where you speak in your own words. Its job is to help someone who is comparing two or three companies decide which one to call.

What the description does and doesn’t do

Google hasn’t confirmed the description as a ranking factor, and as far as anyone outside Google can observe, filling it with search phrases does nothing for your position. Google works out which searches you belong in mainly from the category and the service list. So write the description for the person, and do the relevance work in the fields built for it.

What to include, in order

1. The services you most want calls for, by their everyday names.
2. Where you’re based and the real cities you work in.
3. Who you serve: homes, businesses or both.
4. Facts a customer uses to choose, such as how long you have been operating, the license you hold or whether you take emergency calls. Include only what is true and what you could show if asked.
5. What happens when they call: who answers and what the next step is.

The order matters because Google may show only the opening lines until someone chooses to read more. The field also has a length limit, which the editor shows as you type. If the first sentence is a slogan, the facts may never be seen.

A hypothetical example

For an imaginary heating and air company in the South Bay, a description could read like this:

“We repair and replace air conditioners, furnaces and heat pumps for homes in Chula Vista, National City, Bonita and Imperial Beach. Our shop is in Chula Vista and our technicians are our own employees. When you call, a person answers, gives you an arrival window and tells you the diagnostic fee before anyone drives out.”

It names the services and the cities once each. It doesn’t say “best” or “number one”. A reader finishes it knowing whether this company does the job they need in the place they live.

What to leave out

• Lists of keywords or strings of city names. They read badly and, as far as anyone outside Google can observe, do nothing for your position.
• Web addresses and links.
• Prices, discounts and limited-time offers. Google’s guidelines for this field have long said it’s for describing the business and not for promotions. Check the current wording, because it’s revised from time to time.
• Claims you can’t support, and anything written in capitals to shout.
• Facts that disagree with your website, such as a service you no longer offer.

A description that breaks the guidelines can be rejected or removed. The same rules apply with more force to the business name. Adding services or cities to the name is against Google’s rules and is a common cause of suspension.

Keeping it accurate over time

Review the description whenever your services, service area or ownership change. It should agree with the about page on your website and with the services you list. The agreement has a practical use: search engines and AI assistants build their picture of a business by comparing sources, and a business whose facts match everywhere is easier to describe correctly. The same comparison is behind whether your profile affects what AI assistants say.

When I rewrite a description as part of Google Business Profile optimization, I judge it by calls and website visits from the listing and not by ranking, because that is where a change to this field would show up if it shows up at all.