How To Select Your Google My Business Categories?

With over 3500 categories on Google My Business, selecting the right one is a minefield. Make life easier with our easy-to-follow tips and tricks.

If you own a small business, odds are you don’t have a big budget. And that means you probably need to be more cost-effective in advertising your business. Google My Business is an effective and budget-friendly platform. By choosing Google, not only will you get quality exposure for your small business, but it will also be an affordable investment for you.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss everything about Google My Business categories and how best to use the platform.

Google My Business: What Is It?

Google My Business is a free, easy-to-use platform that allows you to create a profile for your business on Google. You can add a profile photo, business information, and even a map with your location and hours of operation. There’s the ability to add business-specific details too. So if you run a restaurant, you can list a menu and dining options. By creating a profile, you are allowing Google to make your business information available for users to find. This can significantly enhance the online visibility of your business, and it can also help you gain new customers.

Google My Business is a great marketing tool that anyone can use. Because you can post information about your business, you can interact with customers who log reviews on Google Maps. Being published to Google Maps allows users to find your business through a quick and simple location-based search.

Why Is Google My Business Important?

Google My Business is an excellent marketing tool for your small business. When you choose Google as your advertising platform, you can expect a significant increase in traffic compared to other options. Using a Google marketing strategy, you can increase your visibility, and potential customers can find you easier. Amplify this by optimizing seo google my business for the ultimate marketing strategy.

Next up, let’s find out more about google my business categories.

Which Categories Does Google My Business Offer?

Google My Business offers masses of categories for companies to choose from. As it stands, there are over 3500 available. For a list of Google My Business categories, head straight to Google. Some will even give you access to special features. Hotels can list amenities and show class ratings. Restaurants can add URLs for online orders and reservations. And Health and Beauty companies can have a booking button on their profiles.

These categories are used to figure out which customer searches you’ll come up with. So you’ll want to be specific and thorough in your selection. With so many to select from, where do you begin?

How Many Categories Are Allowed For A Google Business Profile?

Once you’ve set up your GMB account, you can have 1 primary and up to 9 secondary categories. Adding more means the categories are likely to get less and less relevant. Because Google will become confused and lower your ranking for main kinds, resulting in fewer good leads.  It’s advisable to keep your category total to around 4.

Finding out how to add categories in Google My Business is pretty simple. Google has an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide in its support section.

Making Google My Business Category Selections

Now that we’ve discussed the basics of GMB, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of selecting the correct categories. You’ll want to add categories to Google My Business that are relevant and meaningful for your business. There isn’t a clear-cut way to do this, as it is largely subjective. Make sure your category selections are as effective as possible with the following tips:

• Business Type: Use your primary category to describe your business. Choose a more general primary if the classification you want isn’t available.
• Category Relevance: When choosing your categories, consider how relevant each one is for your business.
• Competitor Activity: Look at how your competitors use their categories. See what you can learn from it.
• Customer Needs: Keyword analysis of what your customers are looking for can help you define a category. Study keywords and phrases relevant to your business.
• Overlooked Phrases: Some keywords and phrases will be used often. If you’re a niche-specific company, use this to your advantage with overlooked secondary categories.

Concluding Remarks

Google My Business is an excellent platform for boosting your online presence. And it can also be an effective marketing tool for those that don’t have a large advertising budget. Use this platform to catapult your business to the top of search rankings, and you’ll reap the rewards for years.

Are you using GMB? Let us know any tips and tricks you’ve discovered on your Google My Business journey!

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