Google Places categories
-
I work with a Local SEO company for troubleshooting our Google Places and optimization. They suggested that in order for us to rank for the keywords we provided them with they need to change the categories. Now, those categories do not exist in Google Places and I read on Seomoz and Google help forum that we should choose from the ones in the list provided by Google. I also know that Categories should not contain location-based information.
Should I let them do that?
-
Times these are a changing guys. Google just rolled out some new Google+ Page (which is where all Google Place Pages are going) updates. Apparently you can have up to 10 categories now, but none will be custom. This, however, is in the new Google+ Page dashboard. Your existing Google Place pages will be rolled into that soon and then your categories will probably need to be updated. I don't think Google said what they're going to do with your preexisting custom categories, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just disappeared. That's their way of getting rid of all those spammy categories.
-
Thanks Ian, the sad part is that this Local SEO company has been referred by a very trusted Local SEO member, which I am sure you heard about. Turns out that the company that she endorsed is not so good as she thinks it is.
-
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.
Although it does not say "don't add a location" to your categories, there still isn't a good reason to. Google is well aware of your location, so the only reason any SEO would put the location in the category would be to manipulate Google. Once you do that, your listing is going to suffer. Based on experience, do not add location to our client's category listings. And to be blunt, if you're working with a Local SEO who insists on adding it your category, you may want to explore other options.
-
Thanks Ian, I should have looked this question up before posting..I see that your response is in line with all the other ones when it comes to Google categories. Follow up question: do you have the exact paragraph on Google guidelines specifying that you shouldn't add location based information to your categories?
Thanks!
-
There are 5 different categories you can associate your business with. Definitely use as many as you can from Google's pre selected categories. It is okay to come up with your own categories. Google's policy on this is to not add location based information to your categories. A good rule of thumb is to think of what your business is, not what it sells and use that as a category. You can use the additional info and description to mention what you sell.
To make it short, it's okay to use custom categories, just don't spam them for city name + keywords.
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
-
Right hand side Google Local profile image pulling from 3rd party site
Hello! When googling our company's name, the Google Local profile comes up on the right hand side with the reviews, address, phone number, etc. Those are all fine but the main photo being used is not the one specified in the Google My Business profile but it seems to be pulling from a 3rd party site that recently added a link and an image to our website. Why is this happening and can we specify the image that shows up? Your help will be very much appreciated!!!
Image & Video Optimization | | uniseo10 -
Google+ Local ranking for company with no website
Hi,
Image & Video Optimization | | Ant71
Im about to start helping a small business who has a facebook account but no website. Has anyone got any experience of getting a business ranking locally without a website? Just wandering if NAP details from a facebook / Google+ account helps with local citation building? Or whether a basic website is required? Antony0 -
How do you know if you are listed in google+ local?
OK This Google+ local and Google places merge is confusing. My first question is how do you know if your company is listed in Google+ local? I've done a search in Google Plus (logged in with another gmail account) but couldn't find my company on the results. Second question is that I am also not able to be found in maps.google.com, is this related? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | donovanfox0 -
Google+ Business Page Location Problem
I run a business in the St. Louis area. Oddly, St. Louis is broken up into more than 100 municipalities. Google keeps listing my plus page by the small municipality I am in within St. Louis, which limits my ability to show up in the St. Louis local search results. However, other businesses in town are being listed under St. Louis instead of their municipality. Any ideas on how to change this? When I go in and try to change it myself, it just stays the same. Thanks, Steve
Image & Video Optimization | | BardolLawFirm0 -
Anyone notice significant impression drops in Google Places on February 20th?
We've read reports, heard from colleagues and some of our clients have experienced a drop in impressions starting on February 20th. Going from an average of 500+ impressions to 10-30. Anyone else experiencing this?
Image & Video Optimization | | WrightIMC0 -
Google Local Listings dropped in all major keywords
One of our websites had dropped dramatically in all of his major keywords over the past several days. He was ranked in the maps section in google (the old pages not the google plus pages) in the top 3 in his most important keywords and all of a sudden they dropped off the first page completely - not just down one or 2 places. Not sure what happened and how to fix it.. help please!!!
Image & Video Optimization | | levylevy0 -
Is anyone experiencing a large number of reviews disappearing in Google Places?
Just curious if anyone else has had issues with any clients losing lots of reviews in the last week?
Image & Video Optimization | | 4RealLocal0 -
What impact will Google removing 3rd party citations from listings have on citations being ranking factors?
So now that Google are going to remove 3rd party citations from listings, will they still carry the same weight for local rankings or will this be reduced? If so, how much and when?
Image & Video Optimization | | SteveOllington0