Google Now Allows You to Add a Business Description On Google Business

To be able to gain more visibility online, your business needs to have a Google My Business account and Google Business Listing – known to many as a business profile.

The profile is useless without the GMB account which helps in giving your organisation the online visibility that heavily helps in driving clicks and traffic. As a business owner, you need full capability to edit and manage your online traffic and enhance effective SEO. Google My Business is the tool you need for lead generation and claiming ownership of your Business Profile for full management rights.  Read more on Utopia Web Designs.

GMB is a tool that helps business owners to optimise and manage their business profile. This basically means that even with the Business Profile alone, you cannot control or culture the information, clicks and reviews that profile attracts. This is where the GMB comes in.

You can now add your business’s description in your profile

Initially, all Google needed in your profile was the location, category of the business and the name. They would then check against the available data in the area, then determine its uniqueness. The resultant profile is then left to the customers who would like to leave reviews, feedback and photos.

Google published a communication on twitter that they were allowing business owners to be able to include company description in the Business Listings on Google My Business.

How to add

Adding a description of your business to the Google My Business is a straightforward process and need not to confuse you. Here are the steps;

Log into your Google My Business account.

Click on the “info” button on the menu bar

On the new window, you’ll see “Add Business Description”

Click on this, and locate the pencil icon next to the field

A field will come up allowing you to enter a brief description about your business.

How to optimize your Google My Business Description

The re-introduction of Google My Business descriptions is as refreshing to business enterprises as it is to agencies. It is a much welcome change giving the players an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market – a powerful move in creating tangible and lasting relationships with clients through trust building.

Such changes are making GMB a much more appealing tool for businesses and searchers. It makes it easier for companies to rake up likes and reviews, whilst enabling the searcher to find what they are looking for in record time.

Earlier, I used the term ‘re-introduce’. If you are wondering why, here’s the reason. Before then when Google+ and GMB were connected, businesses could include their description in the Google My Business profile. This was beneficial since as a business owner, you could optimize your description for local keywords and include marketing strategies that could open your business to a broad market. However, this was cut short when Google took away the feature.

Pulling the plug on the feature was destructive and served a major blow to the businesses as they could not communicate to prospective clients what their business was all about. Google took it upon itself to include some knowledge panels and map listings that could give people a sneak peek into the company.

Googles announcement in March 2018 changed this for the better. On the Google My Business Twitter account, Google posted, “You can now add a description to your Google My Business listing! The description is a chance to tell prospective customers your story and what makes your business unique”.

Guidelines to adding Google My Business Description

Before you rush to put ink in that box, take a minute to learn what google expects of you as you include a business description in the company profile in the Google My Business account.

Failure for businesses to adhere to these guidelines, Google reserves the right to remove your business profile from Google My Business. Therefore, to avoid such inconveniences, it is advisable to be well-versed with these points.

Representing content on Business Listing on Google My Business

According to Google, the content you post on your business profile should not only be a true reflection of your business, but also unique to distinguish you from the rest.

Google strictly warns against representing irrelevant information that doesn’t directly focus on the products and services you offer, as such information shall not be allowed. Here is a referral to Google guidelines on representing your business on Google.

Content published in this field should not:

• Be misleading to users. You need to ensure that information provided is accurate and represents the true picture about the goods and services you offer.
• Of low quality or display irrelevant content such as gibberish, misspellings, or gimmicky characters.
• Display links. Avoid at all costs to include or otherwise represent anything in link form.

• Display offensive or inappropriate content that may promote violence, discrimination, racism, or any other form of social misrepresentation that may be deemed offensive to any group. The content should not seem harassing, bullying, hateful against individuals or groups based on ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
• Be containing obscene, profane, or offensive language.
• Include pro-terror content. You are advised not to regardless of the purpose of your site – whether education or otherwise not to post a description that promotes terrorist acts, incites violence, or celebrates terrorist attacks. “If posting content related to terrorism for an educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic purpose, be mindful to provide enough information so viewers understand the context.”

• Be suggestive of sexual explicit content. Such content may include and not limited profanity, sexually graphic and offensive slang terms, paedophilia, bestiality, sexual violence, or promoting escort services or other services that may be interpreted as providing sexual acts in exchange for compensation.

• Be related to the sale of dangerous and illegal products or services.
• Seem to be exploitative to children.

Additionally, Google does not allow content that may contain the following;

• Government-issued IDs
• Contact information associated with a name, sensitive records, images, transcripts or links that contain personal information
• Solicitation of private and confidential information through posts and business description other than user’s own name, email and phone number.