Your Google Business Profile description is the short block of text under “From the business” on your listing, and it’s one of the few spots on the profile where you get to talk in your own words. Most Gold Coast owners write it once, in a hurry, while setting the profile up.
That’s fair enough. You’ve got a business to run. But it means a lot of descriptions get knocked back by Google, or they sit there quietly saying nothing a customer actually cares about. Below are the five mistakes we see most often on profiles all along the coast, with a fix for each.
One honest note before we start: the description mostly helps a customer decide to tap call or get directions. It isn’t a big ranking lever on its own, so treat it as a short sales pitch for real people, not a place to cram in search terms.
Stuffing it with keywords and suburbs
This is the big one. A description that reads like “plumber Gold Coast, emergency plumber Southport, blocked drains, hot water, cheap plumber near me” looks like it should help. It doesn’t.
Google’s guidelines ask you to describe your business, and a string of keywords is the opposite of that. At best it gets ignored. At worst your edit is rejected and you’re left wondering why.
It also reads badly. Picture someone in Helensvale with a leaking hot water system at seven at night. They’re scrolling profiles on their phone, and a wall of search terms tells them nothing about whether you’ll actually turn up.
The fix: mention your main service once or twice in normal sentences, then describe your service area the way you’d say it out loud. Something like “we cover the northern Gold Coast, from Coomera down to Southport” does the job. Your service area settings, categories and website pages do the heavy lifting for suburbs, not this little box.
Opening with history instead of what you do
Plenty of descriptions kick off with “Founded by two brothers with a passion for quality…” and only get to the actual service three lines later.
The trouble is that only the first part of the description shows before someone taps to read more. If those opening lines are about your origin story, the customer still doesn’t know whether you do the thing they need. Most people won’t tap through to find out. They’ll just try the next listing.
The fix: lead with what you do, who you do it for and where. Then add one line about what makes you different, such as weekend appointments, a female practitioner on the team or a quote sent the same day. Your history is nice to have, but it can sit near the end, or live on your about page where people who care will find it.
Adding links, prices or specials
Google’s rules for the description are stricter than most owners expect. Links, prices, sale offers and pushy promotional lines are all things the guidelines tell you to leave out, and they’re among the usual reasons an edit gets rejected.
It’s tempting, we get it. Before the school holidays or the summer rush, a tour operator in Surfers Paradise wants to shout about a deal anywhere they can. But the description isn’t built for that, and a rejected edit can mean your old text stays up while you sort it out.
The fix: put offers in Business Profile posts or on your website, where they belong and can be changed quickly. Keep the description evergreen, so it doesn’t go stale the day a promotion ends. If you want people to visit your site, use the website field on the profile rather than pasting a link into the text.
Saying things the profile doesn’t back up
A description that calls you “the best cafe on the coast” or “the top rated physio around” causes two problems. Google can treat it as promotional language, and customers can check. If you say you’re open seven days but your hours show Monday to Friday, people notice, and their trust drops before they’ve even rung you.
There’s a legal side too. Under Australian Consumer Law, claims about your business need to be accurate, and that applies to your profile just as much as your website or your ads. Health clinics have extra advertising rules to follow, so keep clinic descriptions to the services you offer and skip anything that sounds like a promised outcome.
The fix: read your description side by side with the rest of your profile. Every claim should match your categories, hours, services, attributes and photos. If you mention wheelchair access or outdoor seating, make sure the attributes say the same thing. If you can’t point to something that proves a claim, soften it or cut it.
Writing it once and forgetting it
Businesses change. You add a service, stop travelling to a suburb, move to a bigger workshop or start opening on Sundays. The description often stays exactly as it was on day one.
An outdated description sends mixed signals. A customer reads that you do something you’ve stopped offering, rings up, and you’ve both wasted time. Or they skip you because the text doesn’t mention the newer service they’re after.
The fix: set a reminder to reread it every few months, and any time something real changes in the business. The run-up to the Christmas and New Year peak is a good moment, since visitors and locals are both searching hard then. A quick check is usually enough, and it only takes a couple of minutes.
A Google Business Profile description that works
Here’s a simple shape that suits most local service businesses. Aim for a few short paragraphs, use a good chunk of the 750 characters Google allows, and put your most useful sentence first.
- What you do and who it’s for, in one sentence.
- Where you work, written the way a local would say it.
- What makes you different, with a detail customers can check.
- How to get started, such as booking online or calling for a quote.
Say you run a hypothetical mobile dog grooming van on the northern Gold Coast. A weak description might read: “Best dog groomer Gold Coast. Dog grooming, dog wash, pet grooming near me, cheap grooming. Call now for a special deal.”
A stronger version could read: “We’re a mobile dog grooming van that comes to your driveway, covering Coomera, Helensvale and nearby suburbs on the northern Gold Coast. We groom all breeds, including nervous and older dogs, with gentle handling and no cages. Book a time online and we’ll text you when we’re on the way.”
The second one is longer and calmer, and it tells a customer exactly what happens next. It still uses the words people search for, like mobile dog grooming and the suburb names, without forcing them in.
To make the change, search for your business on Google while you’re signed in, choose the option to edit your profile, then find the description under your business information. Edits usually go through a short review before they show, so don’t worry if the old version hangs around for a little while.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes on it, our Gold Coast SEO agency looks at descriptions together with categories, services and reviews, because they all work as a set.
Wrapping up
Your description won’t make or break your rankings, but it can easily make or break a click. Keep it honest, specific and written for a real person choosing between you and the next business on the map.
Start by clearing out any keyword stuffing, then remove links or offers that could trigger a rejection, and check every claim against the rest of your profile. After that, a quick reread each season keeps it doing its job.
The description is only one small piece of how your listing performs. If you want to see how the rest fits together, have a look at our local SEO help on the Gold Coast.
