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What are Google Business Profile Categories?
In a nutshell, Google uses categories to organize businesses. You’re allowed one primary category and nine secondary categories. This will determine how users find your business when they use specific keywords, so it’s essential to choose wisely.Â
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Google Business Profile categories are a massive part of your local SEO strategy because they determine what terms you’ll come up for during a user’s search.Â
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In order for your business to complete your GBP checklist and rank in Google Maps and local search, you’ll need to add categories to your business.Â
This is found in your Google Business Profile, and you can add:
- One primary category
- Up to nine additional categories
It’s crucial to pick wisely because the categories you choose are among the most significant factors in ranking. Choosing the right ones that apply to your business will help improve your overall ranking on Google Business Profile and local searches. It will determine whether users can find your business for specific terms.Â
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Why do GBP categories matter?
In Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factor Survey 2020, the primary category was rated the highest, followed by keywords in the GBP title.
Keywords are assigned to specific categories
The more relevant categories you choose, the easier you make it for someone searching. For example, when people search for specific services on Google Maps, the keywords are assigned to a specific category, which determines the results someone sees. Think of it like a filing system, where relevancy is the primary way to organize.Â
More than 4000 categories available
Google expands their category list almost daily, and there are currently over 4,000 categories available, so finding the right one for your service or business should not be too difficult.Â
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When you type one in, Google will suggest additional categories, making it a bit easier to pick the right ones.
Different categories, different features
Categories determine which features are available for your business on the GBP dashboard.Â
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These are crucial for user conversion and improving your ranking, so you want to have the right ones available for your business.Â
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Each category has a different set of tools, so take some time to be strategic with your choices.Â
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Products, for example, aren’t available to every business type/category and some business types are able to publicly display their amenities and/or add additional URL’s for online orders or reservations.Â
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A booking button is available to businesses in the health and beauty industry. Learn more about Google Business Profile Guidelines.
Primary vs Additional Google Business Profile Categories
The other reason why categories are so vital is that Google will prioritize your business for your primary category, but you will have to compete with other businesses within the secondary categories.
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 Therefore, your secondary categories have way less power or reach than your competitor’s primary category.Â
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For example, let’s take a transmission shop. Suppose you’ve chosen the keyword ‘transmission shop’ as your secondary category, and there is another business close by that has selected that keyword for their primary category.Â
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In that case, they will get priority in ranking. It’ll be more challenging to compete, especially for businesses in close proximity, because the local area determines a business and its relevancy in the rankings.Â
The primary category - your major niche
The further away you are from the searcher, the less relevant your listing on Google Maps gets.
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Google wants to give every business one niche so that everyone gets its fair share. This can be frustrating for businesses that have more than one primary services like HVAC companies that specialize in both heater repair and AC repair.Â
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Since Google wants to answer the search query as precise as possible, a company that specializes only in AC Repair will get priority. At least when it comes to categories.Â
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The following image shows three Google Business Profile listings with three different categories.Â
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That mostly happens when other ranking factors have a bigger impact on the result than categories.Â
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If categories would be an isolated determining factor then all businesses in the 3-pack would most likely be listed under the same category.Â
Choose the best categories
So how do you choose between primary and secondary categories? You need a strategic approach and a deep understanding of what searches would lead users to your business.Â
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What is the main reason customers come to you, and how does that fit in a category? That’s the starting point you need to consider for local SEO, and then you build from there with keyword research.Â
How to Find the most important GBP categories
Keyword Research
Once you identify general keywords for your Google Business Profile categories, it’s time to look at the details. What are the specific services or products your business provides?Â
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What keywords bring the highest search volume to your page, and what are the most relevant ones? That will help narrow it down further. Check out the top auto repair shop GBP categories.Â
Remember: It’s not beneficial to only rank for generic keywords with high volumes, as that won’t drive sales. Words with less search volume doesn’t necessarily mean worse; it’s often the opposite. If the keyword has a lower search volume but is an accurate description of what the business is and offers, choose that one.
The next step is to search for those keywords you’ve identified using a local grid search tool like brightlocal.com. You can run location-based searches to see local rankings in areas, giving you an unbiased look at competitors.Â
Bear in mind that Google isn’t just using keywords to base rankings on. A lot more goes into it, such as Google click history, browser history, user location, the local IP address, etc.Â
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It’s using a mixture of these elements to show results, which can skew your results versus what someone else’s.Â
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An unbiased search checker resets all the data so that results are as accurate as possible. You can run searches across different areas to understand the local market and who you’ll be competing with.
Use Keywords to find Google Business Profile categories
After you’ve done some research you can use the information to find your best categories.Â
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A tool like Pleper Category Helper can help you find the most relevant categories for your business. Just add relevant keywords and Pleper will find your most relevant categories.Â
Competitor Research
Once you’ve identified and searched for your specific keywords, it’s time to take a closer look at the competition. What categories are great competitors using?Â
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Great, in this context, are those competitors whose first and results when searched from from different areas on maps depending on user location. You can always see the individual category they are ranking for inside the listing.
Tip: Don’t spend too much time looking manually. You can download Chrome extensions such as Pleper Local Tools. It’s a really awesome tool that saves you a lot of time. You can select listings, and the Chrome extension will show you what categories are being used and many more. It’s a really nice way to get a quick look at your competitors’ GBP categories and all sorts of other data.
How to Choose Secondary Categories
Once you’ve identified your primary category, you’ll need to choose some additional categories that aren’t in tough competition as another businesses’ primary keywords.Â
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So, for example, if your primary category is ‘auto repair’ and you plan to use the term ‘car repair and maintenance’ as your secondary category. However, while researching, you notice that most of your competitors actually use ‘car repair and maintenance’ as their primary category.Â
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This means that they have a higher chance to outrank you because Google sees ‘car repair and maintenance’ as less relevant to your business but more relevant to others and prioritizes them.Â
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The business in the following image has most likely chosen “Oil change service” as their additional category since oil change service is probably part of their general auto services as their name indicates.
Ideally, your secondary categories shouldn’t be terms that many of your competitors use as their primary category.Â
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The same goes with competitors that are very close to your location. The primary category will always outrank secondaries.Â
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When this occurs, it’s better to opt for categories that don’t promise the highest visibility in terms of high search volume.Â
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So it might not be a term searched often, but it increases your chances of ranking for it when it is.
Ideally, your secondary categories shouldn't be terms that many of your competitors use as their primary category.Â
How many Google Business Profile categories do I need to have?
Logically, we’d assume that the more categories you choose, the better – as long as they are relevant to your business.Â
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Google, however, says otherwise, stating that you only need Google Business Profile categories related to the core of your business.
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However, you’ll often find that what Google recommends and what works are two separate things.Â
Tip: You should be picking highly-relevant secondary categories that are not in close competition with your competitor’s primary categories. It’s essentially a balancing act between the two.Â
Once you’ve completed your keyword research, you can narrow down what categories would work best for you and compare them against others.Â
If the category you have in mind is not available, choose a more general category that still describes your business. There is no way to create your own category.Â
how Google (most likely) decides to rank your Local business based on categories
- Competitor data: It's very likely that Google looks at a key term and how competitors do versus how you do for specific categories. To do this, Google will probably evaluate interactions such as calls, requested directions, and website visits. Engagement is one of the most important concepts in digital marketing. You always need to get your customers' attention and engagement is the proof for attention.
- Service/product pages: If your website indicates that you offer a particular service/product, having a specific service/product page on your website related to the categories you’ve chosen bolsters your results.
- Backlink anchor text: This is essentially when another website points to your website with a link that contains a relevant anchor text. The text that surrounds the link is most likely another influential factor.
- Industry-related citations: Being listed on as many relevant industry-related directories can increase category relevance. Google searches for indications across the web that confirm that your business operates in a specific industry/category.
- Review content: Due to review quality being a ranking factor it's very likely Google compares review content with the categories you've chosen. The more the review content matches your categories the higher the chance for Google to value that.
Tip:Â Your homepage, location pages and/or service/product pages, and reviews should include relevant keywords – relevant to a specific category. This helps when Google crawls websites to search for information around those specific categories. It can then conclude with confidence that your business offers the service/product, rather than adding irrelevant categories, improving your rankings.
Check out my Quora profile to find relevant citations for your local business. I’ve created 5 lists for local businesses in US, UK, AU, CA, NZ.
Engagement is proof for attention.
Conclusion
Google Business Profile categories can be a lot to take in initially, especially if you’re new to the world of local SEO.Â
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Remember that improving your rankings is a long-term effort that will require a significant amount of upkeep initially, but if it’s maintained, you’ll see serious growth.Â
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By choosing the proper categories from the beginning, you’ll ensure that your business is easy to find every time users search for the services that you offer.Â
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Once you attract and convert more users, your rankings will steadily improve as Google’s algorithm begins to see that you are a trusted source for the categories you have chosen.
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Still mystified by the world of local SEO and categories? Check out my free Local SEO Bible, where I break down expert tips and tricks to get your business ranked to where it should be.
Would you recommend switching the primary category for half the year? For example, during the Fall to Winter we install fireplaces, during the spring to summer we install outdoor kitchens.
Hi Anthony! This is a really good question and apparently, Google doesn’t really have a great solution for cases like that. If you switch the primary category, the algorithm needs time to adapt to it which is very likely going to hurt your rankings. If you ask me, I would create a new Google profile for the second seasonal business and get a dba so that you don’t get in trouble with Google. You can still use the same website, just create a separate page for the second business and add the URL to the 2nd GB profile. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution. I think a 2nd GBP would work great in a case like that.