Element g:description#

Basic information#

The g:description element contains a detailed product description. It is required for Google Shopping. It can contain up to 5000 characters, but the most important information should appear within the first approximately 160–500 characters.

• g:description element specification in Google Merchant Center Help

Elements related to g:description that can also be used in the feed:

• g:structured_description — a structured product description created using AI (generative artificial intelligence)
• g:product_detail — product parameters
• g:custom_label_0-4 — custom labels for filters in Google Shopping campaigns

Frequently asked questions#

• How do I remove HTML tags from g:description?
  • Use the Strip HTML tags rule.
  • Tip: This rule can also repair text where HTML entities appear instead of characters with diacritics.
• How do I remove links from g:description?
  • Use the Find and replace rule with regular expressions. A guide is available on our forum: Removing links from a product description.
• How do I shorten text in g:description?
  • Use the Truncate value rule to shorten the description to the required length.
• How do I wrap the value in g:description in CDATA?
  • On the Elements page, use the <[c icon on the g:description row. Google Shopping does not require the g:description value to be wrapped in CDATA.
• How do I format the product description (headings, bullet points, bold text, etc.)?
  • Individually — on the Products page via manual editing of the g:description element value, where a WYSIWYG editor is available.
  • In bulk — using artificial intelligence (AI) and the Mergado Sources extension, which can enhance product descriptions and add HTML formatting.
• How do I automatically generate product descriptions using AI?
  • Try the Mergado Sources extension.
  • Note: AI-generated descriptions belong in g:structured_description, not in g:description.
• How do I translate the description in g:description into another language?
  • For machine translation of the feed into other languages — covering not only g:description but also categories, parameters, and product titles — use the Mergado Translate extension. It connects to Google Translate or DeepL and remembers already-translated texts, so you do not have to pay repeatedly for the same translations.
• How do I find products with a missing description in g:description?
  • On the Products page, create a query where you set the element to g:description and choose the is empty condition.
• How do I create a unique description in g:description if it is duplicated across multiple products?
  • Using the Rewrite rule, you can add values from other elements — such as parameters, price, product title, brand, or category — to the g:description element. You can append these to the end of the existing description by entering a rewrite mask like this in the Rewrite rule:

%g:description%

%g:title% is a quality product by %g:brand% priced at %g:price%.

The exact mask depends on what values your elements contain — adjust it so the resulting text makes sense.

• How do I bulk-create a basic product description in g:description when products do not have one?
  • The same way as described above — using the Rewrite rule, adding values from other elements, for example:

%g:title% is a quality product by %g:brand% priced at %g:price%.
One of the top products in the category: %g:product_type%.

Or as described in the How do I automatically generate product descriptions using AI? section above.

What Mergado Audit checks for the g:description element#

• Whether the g:description element is missing or empty for any products.
• Whether the maximum text length of 5000 characters for g:description has been exceeded.
• The audit also flags any character encoding errors in the description.

If you need help, contact our technical support.