RESEARCH · 04

Description

Google's stated purpose, the prohibited content list, and the mobile truncation that ruins most descriptions.

In brief
  • Purpose: services, products, mission, history. Not a keyword bag, not a sales pitch.
  • Prohibited: promo language, prices, links, irrelevant content.
  • Length: ~700-750 chars (Google's UI cap is 750).
  • 140-char rule: mobile truncates the preview at ~140 chars. Front-load the most search-relevant phrase.

What Google says the description is for

Provide useful information on services and products offered, as well as the mission and history of your business.

That is the entire stated purpose. Description is not a keyword bag. It is not a sales pitch. It is a short answer to "what is this place and what does it do."

Prohibited content

Google lists four explicit prohibitions:

  • Low-quality or irrelevant content
  • Focus on promotions, prices, or sales
  • Links of any type
  • Content irrelevant to the business

Most shop descriptions violate at least two of these on day one, usually the promo focus and the irrelevance. A description that opens with "Voted #1 in Van Nuys 2024" is on the wrong side of all four rules.

Length

Google has not published a character minimum. The UI cap appears to be 750 characters, and we recommend writing to roughly 700-750 to fill the visible space. There is no benefit to leaving it short.

The 140-character problem

On mobile, the description preview truncates at approximately 140 characters before the "more" expand. This is an industry observation, not a Google-published number, but it has held across our profile audits.

Implication: the first 140 characters must front-load the most search-relevant value proposition. Specific brands. Specific cities. Specific certifications. Whatever a customer searching "BMW mechanic Van Nuys" needs to see before deciding whether to tap.

What we audit for

Our description audit walks through six checks against the live profile:

  1. Brand mentions if the shop is a marque specialist. "BMW," "Mercedes," "Porsche," "Audi" for European specialists; "Toyota," "Honda," etc. for Asian-import specialists.
  2. Certifications stated by their published abbreviation: NAPA, ASE, RepairPal-certified, IATN, etc.
  3. Warranty terms if the shop publishes one (e.g., "3-year / 36,000-mile warranty on parts and labor").
  4. Named services that match the website's service pages, so Google's website-to-profile cross-check does not flag mismatches.
  5. Named service-area cities, three to five maximum, focused on the actual driveable catchment.
  6. Front-load discipline: most search-relevant phrase in the first 140 characters.

What we will not put in

  • Phone numbers (Google explicitly prohibits these in some surfaces and they look spammy here).
  • URLs (forbidden).
  • Pricing or promo language ("starting at," "save 20%").
  • Emojis (not technically prohibited, but they read amateur and Google's cleaner profiles do not use them).
  • All-caps shouting.

Sources

  • https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177 · Google Business Profile guidelines, including the description rules and prohibited content.
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