What Are Google My Business Categories?
When you set up a new business in Google My Business, they require you set a category for your business. As the best Knoxville web design agency, Vertical Hosts does this all the time, especially as a part of our basic web design SEO service. When you set your category, it helps your business show up for relevant searches in Google My Business and Google Maps, which can give your business a big boost if you primarily target local customers.
A few numbers to keep in mind:
- There are almost 4000 Google My Business categories as of 2020 (3942 to be exact)
- Google allows you to select up to 10 categories for your business
- You can only select 1 primary category, which is given the most importance in Google’s algorithm
How To Choose The Best Google My Business Category
When you select a category, you’ll have the best results if you follow these three rules:
- Be as specific as possible when choosing your Google My Business category – The more specific you are, the fewer businesses you’ll be competing against for customers.
- Add the least number of Google My Business categories possible to describe your core business – The more categories you have, the weaker each individual category gets in a potential customer’s search for businesses that do what you do. The goal is to have laser guided precision with your category and remember more doesn't equal better.
- Describe your business… not your services or amenities – If you are adding a new restaurant to Google My Business and that restaurant has a bar, do not add “Bar” as a category because that does not describe your entire business, it describes specific services. The goal is to select a category that describes your overall business.
This list is sorted in alphabetical order. You can freely save/download a copy and share as you need to.