The description you write for your storefront is often the wrong shape for Google Shopping. Google has its own rules for the description attribute, and copy that sells well on a product page can break them. Here is what Google asks for and how to write a description that meets it.
What Google requires
Google requires a description for each product. A product without one gets a warning and may have limited performance. The description can be up to 5,000 characters, and longer text is cut off.
- Required: Yes, for every product
- Length: 1 to 5,000 characters
- Consistency: It has to match the title and the landing page
- Scope: Describe the product only
Lead with the details that matter
Google's advice is to put the most important details in the first 160 to 500 characters, because shoppers may have to click to read the rest. Start with what the product is and the facts someone uses to decide.
- Open with: What it is, who it is for, and the main material or spec
- Then add: Size, age range, special features and technical specifications
- Appearance: Shape, pattern, texture and design
- Variants: Mention the color or flavor this variant comes in
What to leave out
Most rejected or weak descriptions carry storefront habits into the feed. Google asks you to keep these out of the description and use the dedicated attributes instead.
- Promotional text: No sales language, all caps or capitals for emphasis
- Price and offers: No price, sale details or dates
- Shipping: No shipping or delivery information
- Links: No links or references to your store or website
- Comparisons: No comparisons with other products
- Other items: No accessories, compatible products, company history or policies
- Company name: Leave it out of the description
Before and after
A description written for a storefront usually needs trimming, not a rewrite from scratch. Remove what belongs in other attributes and move the product facts to the front.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| HUGE SALE! Our softest tee ever, now 20% off with FREE SHIPPING. Shop the full range at our store. | Crew neck t-shirt in 100% organic cotton jersey. Regular fit, short sleeves, ribbed collar. Pre-washed to limit shrinkage. Machine washable. Forest green. |
Special cases
A few product types have their own rule in Google's guidance. Check these if they apply to your catalog.
- Bundles and multipacks: Describe the whole bundle, not one item in it
- Customized goods: Describe the customization options
- AI-generated text: Google has a separate structured description attribute for this
- Language: Write in the language of your product data, and use foreign words only if they are well understood
Titles follow their own rules. See how to write Google Shopping product titles.
Doing this at scale
FeedFix checks every product against Google Merchant Center and Meta Catalog rules and scores each one 0 to 100 per channel. It drafts compliant title and description rewrites that you review as before/after diffs, then apply in bulk, and every change is audit-logged. See FeedFix.