Your café's name and description on Google: what Google's Business Profile guidelines allow

Google's Business Profile guidelines say to use the description field to "provide useful information on services and products offered, as well as the mission and history of your business". They say "No links of any type are allowed." in it. For the name, they say it should "reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers". Google also says that "Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile." Address, hours and category go in their own fields, not in the name.

What should a café's Business Profile description say?

It should give useful information about what the café offers and who it is. Google's page says: "Use the business description field to provide useful information on services and products offered, as well as the mission and history of your business."

It also sets a tone: "You should be upfront and honest about the information provided, focusing on content that's relevant and useful to your customers to understand your business." And it adds: "Content that's irrelevant to your business or has no clear association with it isn't allowed."

Here is a description of our own, for a made-up café. It is not Google's example, and no real business is meant: "Example Café is a coffee shop and bakery. We serve espresso drinks, filter coffee, sandwiches and cakes baked on site. Our mission is to make a good cup of coffee an easy part of the day. We opened in 2019 and buy our beans from a roaster in the next county." The first two sentences give services and products, the third gives the mission and the fourth gives history. Those are the four things Google names: services, products, mission and history. The page does not say how long a description should be, so I will not give a length. I also make no claim that the description changes where you appear in results, because Google's page says nothing about that.

What is not allowed in a café's Business Profile description?

Google lists three things the description must not do, and the last one is absolute: no links. Its page says to make sure that "your business description does not:"

• Low-quality content. "Display low-quality, irrelevant, or distracting content. For example, misspellings, gimmicky character use, gibberish, etc."
• Promotions and prices. "Focus on special promotions, prices, and offer sales." Google's example of content not allowed includes "Everything on sale, -50%", and it gives a second example about the price of bagels.
• Links. "Display links. No links of any type are allowed."

Our reading: for a café, that means no web address and no menu link in the description, and no "two coffees for the price of one" line. Google's page asks for services, products, mission and history instead.

What name should a café's Business Profile use?

The name your café really goes by, and nothing unnecessary added. Google's page says: "To help customers find your business online, accurately represent your business name. Your name should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers."

The other details have their own places: "Add additional details like address, service area, business hours, and category in the other sections of your business information."

Google gives a coffee shop example. For "a 24-hour coffee shop in downtown San Francisco called Shelly’s Coffee", its page shows the entries as Business name: Shelly’s Coffee; Hours: Open 24 hours; Category: Coffee shop. The shop is Google's hypothetical example. The point is that "24 hours" is in the hours field and "Coffee shop" is in the category field. Neither is in the name.

If you are not sure what the "real-world name" is, my advice, not Google's: look at your sign, your website and your stationery. Google's wording names those places, so they should agree. For how a site's name is chosen in search results, see our article on the name above your café's Google result.

What can't go in a café's Business Profile name?

Google gives a list under "Your name must not include". Its page says "Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile." The labels on the list are:

• Marketing taglines
• Store codes
• Trademark/registered signs
• Fully capitalized words
• Business hours information
• Phone numbers or website URL’s
• Special characters ... or irrelevant legal terms

The list goes on with service or product information, location information, containment information, and repeated bilingual names. For the labels, Google shows "Not acceptable" and "Acceptable" examples. I have left out its brand examples and give only the labels.

Here is a pair of our own, made up, with no real business behind it. Google marks its examples "Not acceptable" and "Acceptable". In that style, ours: "Not acceptable" is "Example Café, Best Coffee in Town", which adds a marketing tagline, and "Acceptable" is "Example Café". That is Google's rule applied to a café, and the tagline label comes from Google's list.

There is one exception, for special characters and legal terms. Google's page says: "To include special characters or legal terms in your Business Profile name, you must provide real-world proof (e.g. signage, business cards, invoices) that consistently displays those elements as part of your business name." So a character such as @ or % can stay only if real-world proof such as signage, business cards or invoices consistently shows it.

Containment is a related case: a café inside another business. Google has a rule on that, and I cover it in our answer on a café inside another business.

Does the category belong in a café's Business Profile name?

No. Google's page puts category in its own section, and in the coffee shop example "Coffee shop" is the category, not part of the name "Shelly’s Coffee". The page says to "Add additional details like address, service area, business hours, and category in the other sections of your business information."

On choosing the category, Google says to "Select categories that complete the statement: "This business IS a" rather than "this business HAS a."" Its reason: "The goal is to describe your business holistically rather than a list of all the services it offers, products it sells, or amenities it features." It also says: "Do not use categories solely as keywords or to describe attributes of your business."

The page also says "Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list."

What about the café's own website?

Google's name rule says the name should be used "consistently on your storefront, website, stationery ...". Our reading: the name on your website should match your profile. Our reading: since Google says "No links of any type are allowed." in the description, we would leave the web address out of it too.

Our free check reads your café's website, not your Google profile. It looks at six things, and one of them is: "Phone and address an assistant can read. Your phone number and address as schema.org data, not only as text or a picture." It reads your site once, the way an AI crawler does, and keeps nothing. It cannot tell you whether your profile name or description follows Google's guidelines. For that, read your profile against the quotes above.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google, no last-updated date shown, read 2 November 2026.
• Cupán Studio, Is my café website AI ready? (cupanstudio.com/check), the six things it checks, read 5 November 2026.

This is a summary of Google Business Profile Help guidelines read on 2 November 2026, not legal or tax advice. The café examples are ours and are made up. Cupán Studio builds websites for cafés in Ireland.