Description text too short: how to fix it
What causes the "Description text too short" error in Merchant Center and how to write a description that clears it.
"Description text too short" means your product description is too thin or generic to actually describe the product. Replace it with real, specific detail, materials, dimensions, use case, rather than a placeholder line.
What triggers it
Google flags descriptions that are too short or too generic to meaningfully describe the product, commonly a single vague sentence, a repeated boilerplate line across many SKUs, or a description field left at a supplier's placeholder text. It's a quality signal, not a hard character-count rule, so a technically-long description that says nothing specific can still trip it.
A quick way to spot the root cause: if dozens of unrelated products share an identical short description, it's a template default, not a per-product writing gap.
/tools' enrichment writes a specific, product-level description into the supplemental layer for anything flagged as thin, without overwriting your source data.
Step by step
- Find the affected products. Filter Diagnostics to "Description text too short". Check whether it's a handful of new products or a category whose supplier feed carries only placeholder copy.
- Write real, specific detail. Cover material, dimensions, what's included, intended use, and anything a shopper would want to know before clicking through. Avoid one-line filler like "great product".
- Check for a default placeholder. If many products share the exact same short description, a template default is likely the root cause, fix that rather than each product individually.
- Resubmit. Push the updated feed. Clears automatically once the description carries enough real content.