Guides
How to write a company description, with real examples
We read the description on 34 company homepages in October 2026; the median ran 144 characters. Ten real examples, and how to write yours.
A company description says what the company does, for whom, and why it is the better choice. It comes in two lengths. On a home page, it is a short summary of about 140 characters. In a business plan, it is a full section. On October 24, 2026, we read the ones on 34 company home pages, and the median ran 144 characters, or 22 words.
What is a company description?
The term means two things. In a business plan, the U.S. Small Business Administration calls it the section that gives “detailed information about your company”. The SBA asks it to cover the problems the business solves, who it serves and what sets it apart.
On a website, it is the short summary a home page gives search engines. Google calls this meta description “a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about”.
Company description examples from real homepages
These are ten of the 34, as each home page carried them on October 24, 2026, shortest first. The number after each name is its length in characters, and each name links to the company’s entry in the Index.
- Vercel, 45: “The autonomous stack for every app and agent.”
- Raycast, 78: “A collection of powerful productivity tools all within an extendable launcher.”
- Wise, 108: “150+ countries, 40 currencies, one account. Save when you send, spend and manage your money internationally.”
- WooCommerce, 132: “WooCommerce is the open-source ecommerce platform that helps merchants and developers build successful businesses for the long term.”
- Todoist, 148: “Trusted by 30 million people and teams. Todoist is the world’s favorite task manager and to-do list app. Finally become focused, organized and calm.”
- Stripe, 149: “Stripe is a financial services platform that helps all types of businesses accept payments, build flexible billing models, and manage money movement.”
- Brilliant, 154: “Visual, interactive tutoring in math and coding, from 5th grade through college. Master concepts in algebra, calculus, Python, computer science, and more.”
- Calendly, 159: “Calendly connects and simplifies all of the work around meetings, from scheduling, payments, and meeting prep to notetaking, contact management, and follow-up.”
- Bitwarden, 178: “Bitwarden is the trusted, open source password manager for individuals, teams, and enterprises. Securely store, share, and manage passwords, passkeys, and secrets. Free to start.”
- 99designs, 199: “The global creative platform for custom graphic design: logos, websites and more. Hire a talented designer or start a design contest. 500k+ happy customers have used 99designs to grow their business.”
How long should a company description be?
The 34 ran from 45 to 199 characters, with a median of 144. In words, they ran from 8 to 31, with a median of 22.
| Under 100 | 5 |
|---|---|
| 100 to 129 | 8 |
| 130 to 159 | 15 |
| 160 or more | 6 |
The median summary on these home pages runs 144 characters.
Source: TheCompanyIndex.com, our read of 37 company homepages on October 24, 2026 (34 read)
Fifteen of the 34 sit between 130 and 159 characters. Google sets no limit on this summary, but it cuts the snippet as needed to fit the screen of the device. A business plan’s version runs longer, since the SBA asks for detail.
A description also does a different job than a tagline. The median headline on these sites ran five words, against 22 for the median summary.
How do real descriptions open?
Seven of the 34 open with the company’s own name, five of them with the name and a verb such as “is” or “helps”. Stripe’s begins this way: “Stripe is a financial services platform”.
| With the company's name | 7 |
|---|---|
| Another way | 27 |
Source: TheCompanyIndex.com, our read of 37 company homepages on October 24, 2026
The other 27 open another way, as Vercel does with “The autonomous stack for every app and agent”. Twelve of the 34 mention AI, agents or “agentic”.
What should a company description include?
- What the company does, and for whom. The Index’s own guidelines ask for exactly this, in plain words.
- The problem it solves. The SBA asks a business plan to “go into detail about the problems your business solves”.
- Who it serves. The SBA asks you to “list out the consumers, organization, or businesses your company plans to serve”.
- Why it wins. The SBA asks you to explain your competitive advantages, and calls this section “the place to boast about your strengths”.
How to write a company description
- Write the long version first. Answer the four points above in a few short paragraphs. That is the business plan section, and every shorter version starts from it.
- Cut a summary of about 140 characters for the home page. That is the median of the 34, and Google shows what fits the screen.
- Write one for each page. Google’s snippet guide asks for a unique description on each page, and a site-level one on the home page.
- Keep it plain. The Index declines descriptions “stuffed with keywords or copied from elsewhere”.
The description the Index asks for
Every entry in TheCompanyIndex.com carries a description of 160 to 1,500 characters, in plain words. That leaves room for the long version, and the Index may fix typos and shorten it. A founder can add a company for free and edit the entry later from the dashboard.
What this page could not check
Our read measures what companies publish, in length and in wording. It holds no data on which description wins customers, lenders or clicks. The 34 come from one index, most of them software companies, read on one day. Figma and Strava ask readers like ours to stay away in their robots.txt files, and Toptal blocked the read. The business plan kind rests on the SBA’s guidance, with no sample of real plans. We read the home pages again by January 24, 2027.
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration, “Write your business plan”, business guide, read October 24, 2026.
- Google Search Central, “Control your snippets in search results”, documentation, read October 24, 2026.
- The home pages of the ten companies quoted above and of 24 more in the Index, read October 24, 2026.
- TheCompanyIndex.com, the /submit page and the guidelines, read October 24, 2026.
Questions
What is a company description?
In a business plan, it is the section that gives detailed information about the company: the problems it solves, who it serves and its competitive advantages, as the SBA puts it. On a website, it is the short summary a homepage gives search engines, which Google calls a meta description.
How long should a company description be?
On the 34 company homepages we read on October 24, 2026, the description ran 45 to 199 characters, with a median of 144, or 22 words. Google sets no limit and cuts the snippet to fit the screen. The business plan version is longer.
What should a company description include?
What the company does and for whom, the problem it solves, who it serves and why it is the better choice. The SBA asks a business plan for the last three, and the Index asks every entry for the first, in plain words.
What is the difference between a tagline and a company description?
A tagline is one short line, and a description explains. On the homepages we read, the median headline ran five words and the median description 22.
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