The description attribute
The Merchant Center description attribute spec, covering its purpose, the 5,000-character limit, what to include, what trips editorial policy, and how it affects matching.
The description is where you tell Google what the product actually is, in full sentences, once the title has hooked the shopper. Google reads it to match your product to queries and to check that your data is honest and complete. Keep it to the product's real features and specs, since promotional language and store policy don't belong here and can get you disapproved.
What the description attribute is
| Attribute | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
description |
A full-sentence account of the product's features, materials and specifications | The Pegasus 40 pairs a responsive Zoom Air unit with a breathable engineered-mesh upper. Cushioned foam midsole, rubber outsole for road grip, 10mm heel-to-toe drop. Machine washable. |
The description is the feed's long-form text field. Where the title matches on the words a shopper types, the description gives Google the fuller picture (materials, dimensions, compatibility, care) that it uses both to match longer queries and to sense-check that your listing is what it claims to be.
Length
- 5,000 characters: the maximum Google accepts.
- First ~500–1,000 characters: where the useful specs should live, since that's what's most likely to be read and weighed.
Length for its own sake helps nothing. A tightly written 400-character description of a simple product beats a padded 3,000-character one.
What to include
- Concrete specifications: dimensions, weight, capacity, materials, compatibility, power, care instructions.
- Defining attributes: the same colour, size, material and model facts that appear in structured attributes, restated in prose so the two never contradict.
- Genuine features and use cases: what the product is for, written plainly.
- Full sentences: Google prefers readable prose over a bullet dump of keywords.
Deep dive What trips a description up
Descriptions get disapproved or downweighted for a predictable set of reasons:
- Promotional and store-policy language.
Free next-day delivery,Buy now,Lowest price guaranteed, return-policy text, and calls to action all belong elsewhere: shipping goes in the shipping attributes, promotions in promotion assets. In the description they read as spam and are an editorial trigger. - Other retailers' or marketplaces' names. Supplier copy frequently mentions "also available on…" or references a competitor. Google reads that as a mismatch. Strip it.
- Contradicting the structured data. A description that says "cotton" while the
materialattribute says "polyester", or that describes a red product in a listing whosecoloris blue, undermines the whole listing's trustworthiness and can suppress it. The prose and the attributes must agree. - Claims about products you don't sell. Copied catalogue blurbs sometimes describe a whole product range. The description must be about this offer only.
- Formatting artefacts. HTML tags, broken encoding, or a wall of un-punctuated keywords. Google wants clean, readable text.
The through-line: the description is a trust surface as much as a matching surface. Anything in it that doesn't match the product, the attributes, or Google's policy is a liability, not a feature.
Effect on matching
The description is a secondary matching signal. A spec mentioned only in the description (a compatibility note, a material, a dimension) can be enough to surface the product for a specific long-tail query the title didn't cover. It never outranks the title, but it widens the net. This is why thin or empty descriptions leave visibility on the table even when the title is strong.
How this works in /tools
Enrichment produces spec-compliant descriptions that describe the real product, keep the prose consistent with the structured attributes, and strip the promotional and policy-risk language that causes disapprovals: written to a supplemental layer so your source copy is never overwritten. Description completeness and consistency feed into your Feed Health Score. A weak title is usually the bigger lever, so start there (see the title attribute) and treat descriptions as the follow-up that widens matching and closes disapproval risk. For products already disapproved on content grounds, see fixing disapproved products.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a description be?
Google accepts up to 5,000 characters. In practice the first 500–1,000 characters do most of the work, so put the key features and specs there. There's no benefit to padding to the limit; write until the product is genuinely described, then stop.
Does the description affect which searches I show for?
Yes. Google reads the description as a matching signal alongside the title, so specs and attributes mentioned there can help you surface for relevant long-tail queries. It's a supporting signal, not a substitute for a good title.
Can I copy the description straight from my supplier?
You can, but supplier copy often contains the things that get descriptions disapproved, other retailers' names, promotional language, or claims about products you don't sell. Clean it before it reaches the feed.