A description is the client’s first selling point to a customer, as it could well be the first time that the potential customer has had any contact with the client. A description is a written representation, and can contain up to 255 characters.

The description is located to the right of the listing, and is used to pique people's curiosity, and entice them into visiting the website of that business.

On the Smart Local directory, it is more than likely that when someone performs a search, multiple results will be displayed. As a result, there must be some way for users of the site to distinguish between each of the businesses, as one business might specialise in a different area than another.
The purpose of the description is to allow our clients to place key information about their business onto their listing, so that users can get a brief understanding of what the company can offer, and from there, they can visit the client's website, or contact them for more information.

This makes it much easier for people who are using the site to determine which business they wish to contact.