Where these two fields actually live (and why contractors skip them)
Log into the Google Business Profile you manage at business.google.com, or the Google Maps app under your business name. Both fields sit inside Edit profile: Services is its own tab, Business description lives under About. Neither one is the same as your primary category, and neither one is the same as a GBP post. That's usually why contractors miss them: the primary category gets set once at verification and never touched again, and Services looks like a formality next to it.
It isn't a formality. Google's map-pack algorithm reads Services as a direct signal of relevance for a search term. A homeowner searches "gutter guard installation near me," and if "gutter guard installation" isn't sitting in your Services list as its own line item, you're relying on your website and reviews to carry that match. Services is the cheapest, fastest lever you have to close that gap, and it takes maybe twenty minutes to do right.
The Business description gets skipped for the opposite reason: it feels like it doesn't matter because it rarely shows up prominently on the profile itself. It does matter, just not where you're looking. It's one of the sources Google pulls from when it builds the AI-generated business summaries now showing in Maps and in AI Overviews for branded searches. Leave it blank or fill it with fluff, and Google is guessing about your business from citations and reviews alone.
Both fields are edited the same way: Edit profile > Services or Edit profile > About > Business description, save, and changes usually reflect within a day. No approval process, no live-editing risk. Unlike your primary category, editing these fields correctly never triggers a suspension review.
We see the same pattern across almost every trade we audit: the profile was set up once, years ago, probably in a hurry during initial verification, and never opened again. A landscaper's Services tab still lists "Lawn care" as the only line item four years after the business added hardscaping, irrigation, and snow removal to the truck. The description still reads like a placeholder because nobody circled back after the profile went live. This isn't a knock on any one owner; it's just what happens when a dashboard field doesn't demand attention the way a ringing phone does.
How to structure the Services tab so it actually helps
Google groups Services under your assigned categories automatically. A licensed roofer with "Roofing contractor" as primary category will see Google suggest service lines like "Roof installation" and "Roof repair" under that category, and you can add custom ones Google didn't suggest. The mistake we see most: contractors check five boxes and stop. Google lets you add far more, and each one you add is a small chance at matching a specific search.
Work trade by trade. A concrete contractor's Services tab should separate driveways, patios, stamped/decorative concrete, foundations, and repair/leveling as distinct line items, not one lump entry called "concrete work." A remodeler should split kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, additions, and whole-home renovations rather than one "remodeling" line. An electrician should separate panel upgrades, EV charger installation, generator hookups, and troubleshooting/repair. Search intent is specific. "Stamped concrete patio" and "concrete driveway repair" are two different searches with two different buyers, and Google can only match you to both if both exist as separate service lines.
Each service line has an optional description field, capped around 300 characters. Use it. A bare checkbox with no description is a weaker relevance signal than one with two sentences describing what's included. Write it like you'd tell a homeowner over the phone: plain, specific, no adjectives doing the work that facts should do. "Tear-off and re-roof for asphalt shingle, tile, and metal roofs. Includes decking repair where needed" beats "Roof replacement" with nothing under it.
- List services as a customer would search them, not as your invoice line items read.
- Split broad categories into the specific jobs inside them (see above).
- Add a one- to two-sentence description to every line, not just the ones Google auto-suggests.
- Skip services you don't actually perform. A mismatch between listed services and job-site reality is a reinstatement risk if a competitor flags it.
- Revisit the list twice a year. Seasonal trades (roofing, landscaping, HVAC) should add and remove lines as the work shifts.
There's no published hard cap on total service line items, but profiles with 15-30 well-organized, accurately described lines consistently out-signal profiles with three vague ones. A multi-trade shop, say a remodeler who also handles decks and additions, should resist the urge to list every possible service under the sun; Google and searchers both trust a profile that reads as a focused specialist over one that reads as a jack-of-all-trades with forty checkboxes and no descriptions behind any of them.
What to actually write in the Business Description field
The field allows up to 750 characters, roughly 100-120 words. Google's own guidance says the description should tell customers about your business, your history, and what makes you unique, not repeat your services list. It explicitly disallows URLs, phone numbers, and promotional language like discount codes; the system will strip or reject those on save.
The structure that works for a contractor profile: one sentence on what you do and who you do it for, one sentence on how long you've been at it and any licensing worth naming, one sentence on your service area, and a closing line on what separates you (specialty work, emergency availability, a niche within the trade). That's four sentences, well inside the character limit, and it reads like a person wrote it because a person did. Example shape, not a script to copy word for word: "[Trade] contractor serving [region] since [year]. Licensed and insured, specializing in [specific niche]. We handle [service type] for homeowners across [service area]. Known locally for [specific, honest differentiator]."
What not to do: stacking keywords ("roofing, roof repair, roof replacement, emergency roofing, residential roofing") reads as spam to Google's review systems and as gibberish to any human who lands on the profile. It also does close to nothing for ranking. This field is not weighted like a meta description; Google has been explicit that keyword stuffing here provides no ranking benefit and risks a policy flag. We've audited plenty of contractor profiles where the description is a wall of comma-separated trade terms with zero verbs, and none of them were outranking the plainly written profile down the block.
Also skip: superlatives with nothing behind them ("the best," "#1 rated"), anything a competitor could dispute, and any claim you can't back up if Google or a customer asks. The description is public and it's one of the easier things for a competitor or disgruntled party to report if it reads as misleading. If you're not licensed in a way you can name, don't imply one. If you don't actually run 24/7 emergency service, don't write it in.
| Do | Skip |
|---|---|
| State your trade, service area, years active | Repeating your service list word for word |
| One line on what's distinct about the shop | "Best," "#1," or unverifiable superlatives |
| Plain sentences, four or so total | Comma-stacked keyword strings |
| Leave phone/links out (field blocks them) | Trying to sneak in a URL or number |
| Name real licensing if you hold it | Implying a license or credential you don't hold |
How these fields feed the map pack and AI Overviews
Neither field is the single deciding factor in map-pack rank; that's a mix of relevance, distance, and prominence, and prominence leans heavily on citations, reviews, and off-profile signals that live outside these two fields (that's map-pack strategy territory, not something we re-teach here). But relevance is the piece Services and Business Description directly feed, and relevance is what decides whether you show up for the right search term at all, before distance and prominence ever get a say.
Here's the mechanic in plain terms: when someone searches a service-specific term, Google is matching that phrase against signals on your profile, your website, and third-party data about your business. A Services tab with "tankless water heater installation" as its own line, with a real description, gives Google a direct, first-party match for that exact search. A vague "plumbing services" line does not carry the same weight for that specific term, and it shows up in practice: two plumbers with identical review counts and identical distance from a searcher can rank differently on a specific-service query purely because one of them bothered to list the specific service and the other didn't.
The AI Overview and Maps AI-summary connection is newer and less talked about. Google's generative summaries (the ones now appearing above traditional map-pack results in some markets, and inside AI Overviews for branded and near-branded searches) draw on a blend of your profile description, reviews, and web content to write a short synthesized answer about your business. A thin or keyword-stuffed description gives that summary system worse raw material, and a stronger, human-written one gives it better. This is a signal worth managing, not a full AI-search strategy; broader AI-visibility work (getting cited by ChatGPT and similar engines) is a separate discipline with its own playbook, and it draws on far more than these two fields.
One more thing worth naming plainly: Services and Business Description are inputs, not guarantees. A perfectly written description on a profile with three reviews and a P.O. box address six towns over isn't going to outrank an established competitor with fifty reviews and a real local footprint. These fields close the relevance gap. They don't substitute for the reviews, citations, and proximity work that carry the rest of the ranking equation.
Bottom line: treat Services and Business Description as first-party ground truth about your business. Everything downstream, map pack and AI summaries alike, is partly built from what's sitting in those two fields.
A 20-minute setup checklist
Most contractors can do this in one sitting. Here's the order that gets it done without leaving gaps.
- Log into business.google.com and confirm your primary category is still accurate. If it's wrong, the Services suggestions built off it will be wrong too.
- Open the Services tab. Work through every Google-suggested line and check the ones you genuinely perform.
- Add custom service lines for anything specific to your shop that wasn't suggested (a niche repair, a specific material, an emergency service).
- Write a one- to two-sentence description on every service line, suggested or custom. Don't leave any as a bare checkbox.
- Open Business description under About. Draft four plain sentences: what you do, how long, where, what's distinct.
- Read it back like a homeowner would. Cut anything that sounds like a keyword list instead of a sentence.
- Save both. Check back in a few days to confirm the changes are live on your public listing.
- Put a reminder on the calendar to revisit both fields twice a year, more often for seasonal trades.
None of this requires a developer, a designer, or a wait for Google approval. It's dashboard work, and it's the kind of thing that gets skipped for months because it looks small. It isn't small; it's the plainest-language signal Google has about what you actually do.
When it's worth handing this off
Filling out these two fields once is a DIY job, and we'd rather tell you that straight than sell you a task you can do in twenty minutes. Where it gets harder is keeping it current: reworking Services when your trade mix shifts seasonally, rewriting the description after a suspension and reinstatement, or auditing it across a profile that's been mismanaged by a previous "Google guy" who checked three boxes and called it done.
That upkeep is part of full profile management, the same shop that handles categories, verification, photos, posts, the Q&A section, review flow tied to the profile, and reinstatement when a profile gets flagged or suspended. One hand on the whole dashboard, no handoffs between a setup person and a maintenance person, which matters because a Services tab that's out of sync with your actual category or a description that contradicts your reviews is exactly the kind of inconsistency that draws a manual review.
It's also worth a second look if you run more than one location, or you're a multi-trade shop where a general contractor entity also runs remodeling, additions, and repair under one roof. Multi-location and multi-category profiles multiply the places a Services tab can go stale, one location adds a service the others never mirror, and nobody notices until a competitor outranks two of your three locations for the same search.
If your Services tab has three vague lines and your description reads like a keyword list from 2019, that's a fifteen-minute fix on a call, not a project. If your profile has bigger problems, wrong category, missing service areas, a suspension in the mix, that's a broader conversation, and it starts with a look at what's actually on the profile right now.