New GMB description impact on search rankings?

[PaulSteinbrueck]

Google has added a description field to Google My Business listings:

You can now add your business description in Google My Business - Search Engine Land

Anyone know what if any effect keywords in this field affects local search rankings?

Our team is now updating our clients GMB listings. I'll let you all know if we see any noticeable difference in search rankings.

Paul Steinbrueck
SkywayWeb.com

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Paul,

In the past, when we had descriptions before, Google said they did not impact rankings at all. That particular field was just too easy to keyword stuff and spam to be counted I think.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Anyone know what if any effect keywords in this field affects local search rankings?

Our team is now updating our clients GMB listings. I'll let you all know if we see any noticeable difference in search rankings.

SkywayWeb.com

We are testing as well and will report back.

Thanks Paul

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Looking forward to seeing the results from you guys!

 

[JoyHawkins]

So far I've seen little-to-no difference and am heavily leaning towards the fact that it doesn't impact ranking. My next Search Engine Land article is all about the description field

 

[PaulSteinbrueck]

Thanks Joy. That's disappointing to hear.

My experience is that Google's local search results don't necessary do well when it comes to companies that span multiple related categories and keywords. Take for example digital marketing companies. Some services they may provide include graphic design, web design, SEO, AdWords management, social media, etc. When someone searches for "[city] web design" Google shows businesses in the web design category but not necessarily businesses that do web design but are in other categories. I was hoping the description field might help with that.

Looking forward to reading your article.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I agree and part of me was sad/disappointed as well. Part of me, however, was relieved because I feel like if ranking was that easy and could be manipulated by the description field alone, we'd all be in for a whack-load of spam outranking legitimate businesses at a rate that is worse than what's out there now.