Blog / Google Business Profile
What to Write in Your Google Business Description
Short answer. Use the description for services you actually offer, plus mission or history a customer can check. Google does not allow a link, a price pitch, or text that is not about the business. Put the phone, the regular hours, and the city in their own fields.
What is the description for?
Google’s guidelines say the description should give useful information on services and products, and on the mission and history of the business. Be upfront. Write what a homeowner or a patient needs in order to tell what you do.
A heating and cooling company can name the systems it services and whether the work is in homes, small commercial buildings, or both. A plumber can name real on-site work, such as drains, water heaters, or repipes. A roofer can name repair and replacement, and the materials the crew installs. A dental office can name the care provided at that office.
History fits when it is true. A founding year or a short line about why the shop started is enough. Skip awards you cannot point to. Content with no clear tie to the business is not allowed, including a joke, a block of search phrases, or a city slogan.
What does Google ban in that paragraph?
Three limits are explicit.
Do not use low-quality, irrelevant, or distracting text. Google’s examples include misspellings, gimmicky characters, and gibberish. A string of symbols and a “number one” claim fails that test. So does a list of city names repeated to chase searches.
Do not focus on special promotions, prices, or sales. Google’s own examples of text that is not allowed are “Everything on sale, -50%” and “Best bagels in town for $5!” The same rule covers a tune-up discount, a new-patient deal, or a paragraph built around a limited-time inspection offer. A factual service list is not a coupon.
Do not include any link. No website URL, no booking link, and no social handle. The website field is where the site goes.
Prohibited-content rules apply to the whole profile. In the listing, Google does not allow promotional content with time-bound promotions, pricing, or a direct call to action. A “half off this month, call today” line breaks the description rule and that listing rule.
Where do the phone, the city, and the hours go?
They go in the fields built for them.
The phone number goes in the phone field. Google asks for a number that reaches that location, under the business’s control, and says to use a local number instead of a central call-center line whenever possible. Copying the number into the description does not replace the field. See why your name, address, and phone must match.
The city belongs in the address, or in the service area if you travel to the customer. Do not spend the description on a metro slogan. If the base is a home you hide, start with how a service-area business is set up.
Regular hours belong in the hours field. Google does allow one seasonal note in the description: you may say the business is open only during a specific season. That is not a reason to paste the weekly schedule into the paragraph. A roofing crew with a real off-season can mention that season and still keep the schedule in the hours field.
How is this different from the business name?
The name is the real-world name only: the sign, the website, the stationery, and the name customers already use. Google’s example is Shelly’s Coffee. The name is not a tagline, not the neighborhood, not the phone, and not the service stuffed on the end.
If the sign says Summit Air, the profile name is Summit Air. Adding “HVAC repair” and a city is service and location information, which the name must not include. Unnecessary information in the name is not permitted and could suspend the profile. Say what you repair in the description. See what to fix if a profile is suspended.
Legal words such as LLC stay off the name unless signage, cards, and invoices consistently show them. A dentist’s profile may include a title or degree, such as Dr. or DDS. If several public-facing dentists share one office, the practice has a profile, and each practitioner profile uses only that person’s name. If one dentist is the only public-facing practitioner at a branded office, Google says it is best to share a single profile written as the brand, then the person’s name.
What should you write, as a practice?
There is no character count on the guidelines page we used. This shape is a practice, not a length rule. Cover what the business is, the services customers should recognize, who you serve at that location, a mission or history line you can say out loud, and one fact people often get wrong, such as “we come to the house” or “care is at this office.” Write those as services, not as a keyword list.
Then delete any price, any link, any phone number, and any “best in town” line.
Google’s ranking page says complete, detailed information helps relevance, which is how well the profile matches the search. A clear description supports that match. It does not override distance, and there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. The factors are in what Google uses for local ranking.
What if the draft sounds like an ad?
Rewrite it the way you would explain the company to a neighbor. The description is a record of the business, not a coupon and not a second website.
Photos of real jobs sit beside that text, not inside it: what photos to add. A holiday note can be a post, which is a separate choice. The ranking page does not list posts as a ranking factor. See what to post on the profile.
FAQ
Can I put a real coupon in the description?
No. Google says the description must not focus on promotions, prices, or sales. A real discount is still a price pitch in that field.
Can I paste the website so people can book?
No. Links of any type are not allowed in the description. Use the website field.
Should every dentist add the practice name to a personal profile?
No. When several public-facing dentists work at one location, the organization has the location profile and the practitioner profile uses only the practitioner’s name. The shared “brand: person” format is for a solo public-facing practitioner at a branded office.
Does a longer description rank higher?
Google does not say that. Complete, detailed information helps relevance. Distance and prominence still apply, and you cannot pay for a better local rank.
