Editing Function for Google My Business Introduction Removed

On August 1 Google disabled the ability for users to edit the business introduction and description field in Google My Business.

This particular field has not been shown on the Google Knowledge Graph or in Google Maps for quite some time anyway. It is thought that the reason behind the decision is that some businesses used it to do “old school” keyword stuffing, adding spam in this field.

At the same time, Google announced that it will soon be releasing new and improved ways to edit business attributes and reminded businesses to update their operating hours to the new format as the 2015 format will be also be disabled soon.

Why should you care?

The fact the description field have not featured in SERP’s for quite some time now, and that Google has now removed the editing option indicates indicates the relative lack of importance of the field in current ranking factors.

If you have spammy business descriptions you should clean them up as they won’t be helping you. And focus on keeping all your business information up to date. A recent report showing over 60% of all searches are now on mobile highlights how important it is to have accurate location, contact and opening hours data listed.

If you are looking for instructions on how to edit the introduction section for your Google My Business profile in Google+ there is a simple explanation here.

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