Local SEO: How do I choose the best categories for my Google listing?

💡What is a category?

Categories are used to describe your activity, so that Internet users and Google understand who you are. 

They greatly influence your appearance in local search results. Indeed, Google will use the categories on your business listing to judge your relevance, one of the most important ranking criteria. 

That's why, before selecting them, we recommend you do a little brainstorming! Fortunately, Google's predefined list includes over 4,000 different categories. It's impossible not to find what you're looking for... 

👀 What are the different types of categories?

There are two types of category: primary and secondary. We explain the difference between the two: 

☝ Main category

The main category is mandatory when creating an account. It must reflect your main activity, i.e. your core business. 

For example, you may be a "restaurant", a "B&B", a "museum", or offer a " bike rentalservice ". All these categories are generic enough to describe your business in the broadest sense. 

Your main category also determines some of the additional options available on your establishment page. Don't panic, we'll come back to this later in the article!

✌ Secondary categories

Once you've chosen the perfect main category, don't stop there! Secondary categories serve to complement the main one, and make it more specific. This is your opportunity to give more details about your activities and services. 

For example, let's say your hotel has a spa. This would be an opportunity to add the categories "wellness hotel", "spa" or "massage institute" according to the services you offer.

You can add up to 9 additional categories. There are no real rules about the number of categories you can add, as long as they are all relevant to your business. 

🎉 These categories unlock specific features

As mentioned above, certain categories unlock special features, which modify the display of the Google listing or offer additional information to customers who consult it.

For example, restaurant owners can add a menu that can be accessed directly from their listing. They also have the opportunity to link to a number of online reservation and order forms. 

Other establishments, such as those in the health and beauty sector, can add a booking button. 

👌 The Uska method for selecting the best categories 

It's hard to find relevant categories when you don't know where to start! Here are a few tips we hope will help you get started. 

✅ Work on your keywords

Before concentrating on keywords, think strategy. It's essential to be clear about how you want to promote your business on the Internet. Define the products and/or services you want to promote, and the customer segments that are a priority for you.

Once you've taken this step, put yourself in a situation. What keywords might your target customers want to type in to find your establishment? And conversely, what keywords do you want to appear on?

If any categories match the keywords you've listed, don't hesitate to add them. Above all, keep your keyword list in a safe place! It will also help you optimize other aspects of your business listing.

✅ Take a look at the competition

Study the categories commonly used by your competitors. That should give you some ideas! To help you with this task, we recommend GMBEverywhere. A free Chrome extension that lets you see all the categories entered on your competitors' listings.  

Once you've pinpointed the most popular ones... It's time to differentiate! It's what makes your establishment unique that will enable you to move up in the search results. Whenever possible, try to find niche categories that would be relevant to your listing. 

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With these tips, you should end up with a nice panel of categories. But once you've selected them, the work doesn't stop! Make sure you keep an eye on your listing's statistics. 

And if you find that your category choices aren't working, you can always go back to them. In fact, it's a good idea to try and keep improving!

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