Google categories for local limousine service
-
I manage the Google places page for a SAB (local limousine company). The question is, should I add "taxi" and "airport shuttle service" as categories? I have listed only "limousine" and "car service' for now and I want to play it safe although those 2 are related to limo service. Sometimes people refer to limo service as "taxi service" or they are inquiring about prices for shuttle service to the airport and they end up booking the service quite often.
Does Google look to our website to find these words in the content? Google Analytics show lots of people are finding us through those two keywords as well although you cannot find the word “taxi" on our website. The interesting thing is that when searching for "taxi + my zip code" the company shows up 4th on maps results and when searching for "shuttle service + my zip code”, the company shows up 2nd on local results and also 2nd in organic results. Is this enough to make me add these 2 categories?
Second question is about the area served, does it make a difference (in rankings) if I choose “Distance from one location"over"List of areas served"? What happens is the red pin would be in a different location. If I choose "Distance from one location" the pin would be right in the center of the city (which I think it shouldn't matter anymore that much since the proximity to the centroid is not a ranking factor anymore). If “list of area” served is selected, (the city name will be chosen) then the pin would be about 5 miles West of the city center.
Any thoughts will be appreciated.
Thank you!
-
Your guy seems very professional, we are setting up a different project. For local, I chose somebody else indeed but just for troubleshooting the pages..it seems I should have hired the other company to do everything.
-
Hi Echo,
Hmm, I'm not happy to hear about that. What about the Local SEO I suggested to you? Sounds like you chose someone else? No one should be advising you to put geo terms in the categories. Not good.
-
I was afraid you were going to say that. The Local SEO company that I work with for making sure our Google Places page and Google plus page are properly optimized suggested that in order for me to rank for my keywords, I have to put the geo terms in the new custom categories. This company has been referred by somebody that you know well, an expert in Local SEO and a Google forum moderator. I know that she just teaches those people what to do and it is up to them to implement it but I thought I would share this information here because if somebody else would have been in my place, they would have been penalized. When I saw the company's proposal, I came here for help because you guys are the only ones that I truly trust.
Thanks for your help!
-
Hi Echo,
Yes, I understand. You have an existent listing, and still have the old dashboard. But new listings are being given the new dashboard with the new category fields in many cases.
No, never put geo terms in your custom categories, business title or business description. That's a short road to a big penalty.
-
Hi Miriam,
The problem is that my Dashboard has the old interface, I can still create custom categories. The question is, should I add "Chicago" to my keywords or not? Somebody else just answer here saying that this would be against Google guidelines.
-
Hi Echo,
You're getting some great feeback here. I will only add...be aware that Google is revamping their whole category stance. In the new Google Places for Business Dashboard, there will be no custom categories, and instead of 5 possible categories, you will be able to choose up to 10. But all 10, if you use them, have to be pre-selected categories and the new category wizard seems to take care of the longstanding issue of ensuring that all categories describe what a business is rather than what it does.
For more on the new category landscape, see:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/04/02/categories-in-the-new-places-for-business-dashboard/
Mike has just actually updated his own, awesome category tool in an effort to reflect that Google has just added a ton of new categories to their taxonomy.
What I don't know is what will happen to the custom categories previously selected by business owners once the new dashboard is fully rolled out. Very curious about that and don't have an answer.
-
Hi Miriam, I just ask a new question and I thought I might get a faster answer here. Here is the question: in Google Local, my first category is limousine service, which I picked it from the pre-selected categories, should I create new other categories which will be basically other high traffic keywords?
This is what it says on Google Help:
"Categories: Select at least one category from the list of available categories."
Are there any rules against this practice?
I checked Mike's categories's tool as well and this is what I got: Limousine Service, limo, limos, limosine, limousine. Should I create custom categories for all these keywords? The SEO company that I work with suggested to add a Geo modifier to better target our main keywords.
-
Thanks William, I did use that tool but it did not returned to many options as it did by studying the competition and the answers here.
-
Here's a great resource for finding the right category: http://blumenthals.com/google-lbc-categories/search.php?q=&val=hl-gl%3Den-US%26ottype%3D1
According to Google Places quality guidelines, "Categories should depict what your business is (e.g. Hospital), not what it does (e.g. Vaccinations) or products it sells (e.g. Sony products or printer paper). This information can be added in your description."
-
You are very welcome!
-
It does indeed Miriam, exactly what I needed. I new about the 20 miles radius, I even asked a few Google moderators about but I got mixed responses. Anyway, thanks!
-
Hi Echo1,
If you find that those keywords are driving traffic, then yes, I'd select them as your categories...but not as your first categories.
Regarding services radius vs. areas served, I recommend you read this thread:
Hope this helps!
-
Thanks Andy!
-
in terms of categories, they are more reference points than definite areas, that is why you can actually input anything you want into there. so yes taxi is a go-er
the difference between the two is that one dictates you saying "we serve within 5 miles radius" it includes every city and town in that area... the second says we only serve this town or city ... (state country etc). the radius is more for local businesses and locations for companies who have multiple offices or shops.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can Google crawl this type of content?
Dear all, I have already asked few questions like that but its some different. it is videos portal. All videos are on server side like on JWS server. when page is loaded after that my video is loaded on loading time dynamically. But Google is unable to read all content of my videos. I have done all the things in sitemap as well. Can Google fetch the video content which is pure dynamic? Please have a look my issue. than only static few pages are coming in Google and two three videos. Please help me anyone regard this. Please guys...........
Image & Video Optimization | | docbeans0 -
On-page Local SEO
I'm wondering how to pull it off on-page local SEO for a financial institution website with 70 locations. However, they are broken in down in regions, which would make it easier to get our hands around. Would a viable solution be setting up regional pages? I don't know about our CMS capability, but it seems like it would be beneficial to have on each regional page aggregate local-centric press releases (example: a volunteer event or recognition) and local announcements such as paper shred days. Thoughts? Anyone else posed with a similar challenge?
Image & Video Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
Link building to Google+ profile: any local SEO value?
Has anyone found value in building links to Google+ profile for local seo rankings? My gut tells me that it will, but I am not 100% sure. If it does, then does that mean that all the traditional SEO factors that would go into ranking a site organically also work for ranking locally for certain keywords? So far, I have found that the best thing for moving up rankings is reviews on Google+, but then does that make local SEO (from a high view point) just a race for high reviews and building the most citation? I am feeling like the differentiator for local SEO is UN-structured citations and links to Google+ profiles. Any thoughts? See you at MozCon!
Image & Video Optimization | | tonyflorespsa0 -
Google local
If you perform a search in Google maps for our company and you are not signed in, it returns our Google + page, with reviews, photos, directions and about tabs, which is fine but, when you click on any of the photos, there is a window that opens to the right where you can edit the location where the photo has been taken, a comment box, photo details and above all, right at the top, MY NAME! Why my name? This is the business page, I don't want people to see that. The snip is below. Thanks! g3OTPRp
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
For Local SEO on a business with many locations, should the city be included in the business name?
For a franchised business with ~50 locations spread across the US, should the city be included in the business name when building citations? Fictional example: We have a staffing franchise called 'Hamilton Staffing'. They have 50 locations in the US. They are all called 'Hamilton Staffing'. We need to finalize the correct NAP information so we are consistent in building citations. For the name, should we just use 'Hamilton Staffing' for all of them? Or should we use 'Hamilton Staffing - Chicago' and the like for other locations? It looks like InfoUSA and Axciom are just using 'Hamilton Staffing', whereas Google is using 'Hamilton Staffing Chicago' and the like. Thoughts on this?
Image & Video Optimization | | brianspatterson0 -
Google Places and Multiple Locations
Hi, I have a client with 3 different physical locations but only 1 phone number for his business. Does anyone know if Google Places will penalize me for duplicate listings due to having the same phone number or will I be ok if I have a different physical addresses per listing? Thanks, -Carlos
Image & Video Optimization | | caneja0 -
Why is here no extra section for Google Shopping
does really nobody care for the most important search result for shops beside organic result? google shoping results mostly pop up in organic results on 3rd place. Vertical SEO Video, Image, Local etc. etc. is not really Shopping Results!
Image & Video Optimization | | kynop0 -
Is there an easy way to see how competitive a local search term is?
Is there a quick and easy way to see how competitive local search terms are? I am looking at helping my clients show up on the local search results. Some times all I have to do is claim a listing and they move right to the top. Sometimes I claim a listing and nothing happens so I get links and I get reviews and it takes awhile. I want to be able to put an accurate price point on the service I am offering. I have looked at the search volume and it hasn't been the best indicator because some industries are more competitve than others. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | jimmyseo0