Do keywords in your GMB description matter?

[MKubot]

Has anyone tested if it helps you rank for keywords if they're in your GMB descriptions? If it does help, has any seen keyword stuffing in the descriptions get punished?

Basically...what would happen if you put a few "about us" sentences, but then listed relevant keywords in your GMB description. Would it have a positive impact, no impact at all or a negative (spam) impact?

Thanks!

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I don't think so. According to some great minds, G doesn't even look at the description in GMB.

 

[whitespark]

I've tested this and have seen no impact. Have also heard directly from Google that they don't consider the descriprion in the ranking algo.

Mike Blumenthal has touched on this in a few posts in the past:

How Long Should Your Business Description Be in the Google Places for Business Dashboard? - Local University

We received this question via Twitter this week from @AlexMorask: Would you happen to know [the] recommended length for [a] business description in Google Places and Google+? And here’s a reply that’s a little longer than what Twitter allows per tweet: In the old Google Places dashboard the...

localu.org

Is There Any SEO Benefit in Varying Your Company Description Across Listings? - Local University

Ben Bowen asked this question on Google+: Seen this debated elsewhere: Is there any benefit to varying your company “description” across listings? Or can you just cut and paste your Yelp (or whatever) description? My answer: If there is a benefit, it would be quite small. Although there is no...

localu.org

 

[Paul Kargo]

Even if it does impact the rankings, it would be negligible.

 

[HoosierBuff]

I have a 32 location client and we added descriptiosn two months ago, and though its' not the greatest test ever, there was no impact at all on traffic to the GMB profiles after adding descriptions.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Have also heard directly from Google that they don't consider the descriprion in the ranking algo.

I was at the event where Google mentioned this and I can also confirm from our own testing that it does not impact ranking.