Key Points:
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What Are Google Business Profile Categories
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Optimizing Your Primary Category
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Leveraging Additional Categories
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Monitoring and Updating Categories
Google Business Profile Categories are crucial to your company’s local SEO. They help local organizations like yours appear in relevant search results when potential customers search for specific products or services in your area.
Inside Google, you will discover a wide range of categories, and selecting the ones that best describe your services is crucial. For example, if you own a coffee shop, you should choose categories like “coffee shop,” “cafe,” or “breakfast restaurant.”
Choosing and prioritizing the most relevant categories improves your visibility in search results and attracts more customers to your location. The following sections provide more tips for optimizing your company’s profile categories.
What Are Google Business Profile Categories?
Google Business Profile categories act as tags that make your business more visible in appropriate search results. You can select up to 10 categories, one of which will be the primary category that best describes your business. Google also has thousands of different categories in its profile list.
What is The Importance of Correct Category Selection?
Google’s algorithm employs these categories to connect user search queries with the appropriate companies listed. Choosing the correct categories is essential for local businesses aiming to appear in relevant search results.
If business owners choose incorrect categories, they risk appearing in unrelated search results, negatively impacting their online visibility. However, accurately selecting relevant categories benefits companies wanting to attract the right clientele.
By clearly defining their products and services within the correct categories, companies will increase their chances of appearing in search results for local users actively seeking those specific offerings.
Overview of Available Categories
Google offers a wide range of categories from which business owners can choose. These categories get organized into groups such as “Restaurants,” “Hotels,” “Healthcare,” and more.
As stated, business owners may select up to 10 categories for their profiles. However, to avoid Google’s online visibility penalties, they should only select categories that accurately describe their services.
Some categories may also have subcategories, allowing business owners to specify their services further. For example, the “Restaurants” category has subcategories such as “Italian restaurant,” “Chinese restaurant,” and more.
Optimizing Your Primary Category
When optimizing your Google Business Profile categories for local SEO, selecting the appropriate primary category is critical. Here are some suggestions to help you refine your primary category choice.
Identifying Your Primary Business Activity
Before selecting a primary category for your Google Business Profile, it’s essential to pinpoint your primary business activity.
That refers to the primary service or product your business focuses on. For instance, if you operate a restaurant, your primary business is serving food.
Choosing the Most Relevant Category
Once you have identified your primary business activity, you will choose the most relevant category for your Google Business Profile. That is important because it helps Google understand what your business is all about and helps potential customers find you when they search for businesses like yours.
Here are some tips to help you choose the most relevant category:
- Be specific: Choose a category that precisely describes your business. Avoid choosing broad categories that don’t accurately reflect what you do.
- Research your competitors: Look at the categories your competitors are using and choose one that is relevant to your business.
- Use Google’s suggestions: Google will suggest categories based on your primary business activity. Use these suggestions as a starting point.
Following these tips, you can choose the most relevant category for your Google Business Profile and improve your company’s local SEO.
Leveraging Additional Categories
In addition to the primary category, businesses can select up to nine additional categories to help Google understand their products and services. These secondary categories can be valuable for improving local SEO and reaching more potential customers in your area.
Strategic Use of Secondary Categories
When selecting additional categories, choosing ones relevant to the business and its offerings is essential. That helps improve the business’s visibility in search results for those specific services or products.
For example, a restaurant might select categories like “Italian restaurant” or “pizza restaurant” in addition to the primary category of “restaurant.”
In some cases, businesses may want to select secondary categories that are more specific than the primary category. For example, a bike shop specializing in mountain bikes might choose “mountain bike shop” as a secondary category.
Why Should You Avoid Category Dilution?
While selecting additional categories can be beneficial, you must avoid diluting the business’s focus by selecting too broad or unrelated categories. That can lead to confusion for both Google and potential customers.
For example, a bakery offering catering services might select “catering” as a secondary category. Still, if catering is not a significant part of their business, it could dilute their primary focus on baked goods.
By strategically selecting relevant secondary categories and avoiding dilution, business owners can optimize their Google Business Profile for local SEO and improve their visibility in search results.
Monitoring and Updating Categories
Why Should You Review Categories Regularly?
Regular category reviews are crucial for optimizing your Google Business Profile categories for local SEO. This process verifies that the categories are current and accurately represent the business’s products and services.
Frequently conducting category reviews has proven vital because Google often updates its category list, adding new options. Keeping up with these changes ensures your business remains accurately classified.
Additionally, business owners should examine competitors’ categories and consider whether adopting similar categories could benefit them. Regularly reviewing and updating categories is critical to staying competitive and maintaining relevance in the market.
Why Should You Immediately Respond to Category Changes?
Google frequently updates its category lists, making it crucial for business owners to stay updated. That means immediately updating your Google Business Profile when a category is removed or altered. Failing to update it will cause your listing to not appear in relevant search results.
The process of updating the categories is quite simple. Business owners can access their Google Business Profile account and make the necessary adjustments. It is important to remember these changes will negatively affect your business’s local SEO strategy if unattended.
Monitoring and updating categories is vital for optimizing a Google Business Profile for local SEO. Regular reviews and timely adjustments in response to changes are essential to keep the business profile relevant and visible in search results.
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