Choosing the Right Business Categories on Google My Business

In today’s competitive digital landscape, optimising your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is essential for local businesses seeking to enhance their online visibility. Among the many elements that influence your profile’s performance, selecting the appropriate business categories stands out as one of the most critical factors that can significantly impact your local search rankings and customer engagement.

Why Business Categories Matter

Google Business Profile categories serve as tags that describe your business activities and help potential customers understand what products or services you offer. These categories play a pivotal role in determining when and where your business appears in local search results and Google Maps.

As of March 2025, Google offers over 4,000 business categories to choose from, with regular updates being made to this extensive list. In fact, just within the last month, Google added one new category to their roster. With such a vast selection available, choosing the right categories requires careful consideration and strategic thinking.

Primary vs Secondary Categories

When setting up your Google Business Profile, you’ll need to select one primary category and can add up to nine additional secondary categories. This distinction is crucial to understand:

Primary Category

Your primary category carries the most weight in determining your visibility in local search results. It should represent the core focus of your business and align with your most profitable services or products. This selection is mandatory when creating your listing and significantly influences how Google interprets your business.

The primary category you choose can also affect which features are available on your profile. For example, restaurants can add menu links and booking buttons, while educational establishments might have different attribute options. Therefore, selecting the most accurate primary category is essential not just for visibility but also for functionality.

Secondary Categories

Secondary categories allow you to further specialise your business description and capture additional relevant searches. They’re particularly useful if your business offers various services that cannot be encompassed by a single category.

While you can add up to nine secondary categories, quality trumps quantity. Adding irrelevant categories simply to appear in more searches can potentially lead to a suspension of your profile due to quality issues. Most experts recommend adding only 2-3 highly relevant secondary categories rather than filling all available slots.

How to Choose the Right Categories

Focus on Specificity

One of the most important principles when selecting categories is to be as specific as possible. Rather than choosing broad categories like “Lawyer,” opt for more specific options such as “Criminal Lawyer” or “Labour Lawyer” if they accurately represent your services.

More specific categories not only improve your relevance for targeted searches but also place you in less competitive search spaces, potentially increasing your chances of appearing in the top results for those specific queries.

Consider Profitability and Search Volume

When deciding between several potential categories, consider these key factors:

• Profitability: Which services or products generate the most revenue for your business? Your categories should align with your most profitable offerings.
• Search Volume: Which categories are associated with high-volume search terms in your area? Tools like UberSuggest can help you identify popular search terms related to your business.
• Competitor Analysis: What categories are your successful competitors using? This can provide valuable insights into effective category selection.

Research Competitor Categories

Examining what categories your top-ranking competitors are using can provide valuable insights. There are several methods to discover competitor categories:

Using Browser Extensions

Tools like the Phantom or PlePer Google Chrome extensions allow you to see the categories used by any business profile. Simply:

1. Install the extension
2. Perform a search for your target keyword or competitor
3. The extension will automatically display all categories for any Business Profile that appears in the results

This approach helps you identify both primary and secondary categories that might be effective for your business.

Manual Research

If you prefer not to use extensions, you can create a list of potential categories based on:

• Your core business functions
• All services and products you offer
• Variants of how customers might describe your business

For example, a digital marketing agency might consider categories like “Digital Marketing Agency,” “Marketing Company,” “Social Media Marketing Agency,” and “Web Design Agency.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Keyword Stuffing

One of the most common mistakes is treating categories as keywords and selecting them solely to appear in more searches. Google explicitly warns against this practice, which they call “keyword stuffing.” This can lead to penalties or even suspension of your profile.

Categories should accurately represent what your business does, not just what you want to rank for. Google’s algorithms are sophisticated enough to detect when businesses are trying to game the system.

Being Too General

Choosing overly general categories dilutes your relevance for specific searches. While it might seem logical to cast a wide net with broad categories, this approach often results in poor visibility across all searches rather than strong visibility for relevant ones.

Ignoring Category Updates

Google regularly updates its category list, adding new options and occasionally removing others. What might have been the best category for your business a year ago might not be optimal today. Regularly reviewing your categories ensures they remain aligned with both your business offerings and Google’s current category system.

Optimising Your Categories Over Time

Category selection isn’t a one-time task but rather an ongoing optimisation process:

Test Different Combinations

If you’re unsure which primary category works best for your business, consider testing different options. However, avoid changing categories too frequently, as this can confuse Google’s algorithms. Wait a few weeks after making changes to properly assess their impact on your rankings and visibility.

Monitor Performance

Use Google Business Profile insights to track how changes to your categories affect your profile’s performance. Pay attention to metrics like:

• Search visibility (both direct and discovery searches)
• Profile views
• Customer actions (website clicks, direction requests, phone calls)

These metrics can help you determine whether your category selections are effectively driving the right kind of engagement.

Stay Updated with Industry Changes

As your business evolves, your categories should evolve as well. If you add new services or shift your business focus, revisit your category selections to ensure they accurately reflect your current offerings.

Technical Considerations

When changing your business categories, be aware that Google may require you to re-verify your listing, especially if the change significantly alters how your business is classified. This is part of Google’s quality control process to ensure businesses are accurately represented.

Additionally, consider incorporating your category selections into other aspects of your local SEO strategy:

• Include relevant category keywords in your business description
• Add these terms to your LocalBusiness Schema Markup
• Ensure consistency across local citations and other business listings

This holistic approach strengthens the relevance signals Google receives about your business.

Real-World Application

Consider a plumbing business that also offers heating services. While “Plumber” might seem like the obvious primary category, if heating installations generate more revenue and have less competition in the local area, “Heating Contractor” might be a more strategic choice for the primary category, with “Plumber” as a secondary category.

Similarly, a dental practice offering general dentistry, orthodontics, and cosmetic procedures would need to decide which service to emphasise as their primary category based on their business goals, local competition, and profit margins.

Conclusion

Selecting the right categories for your Google Business Profile is a fundamental aspect of local SEO that can significantly impact your visibility and customer engagement. By choosing specific, relevant categories that accurately represent your business offerings, you position yourself to appear in the searches that matter most to your bottom line.

Remember these key principles:

• Choose one highly specific primary category that best represents your core business
• Add only relevant secondary categories (quality over quantity)
• Research competitor categories for insights
• Avoid keyword stuffing and overly general categories
• Regularly review and update your categories as your business evolves

With over 4,000 categories available and regular updates from Google, staying informed about your category options is an ongoing process. By approaching category selection strategically and making data-driven decisions, you can enhance your local search presence and connect with more potential customers in your area.

As we move further into 2025, the importance of precise category selection will only increase as Google continues to refine its local search algorithms. Businesses that master this aspect of their Google Business Profile optimisation will gain a significant competitive advantage in the increasingly important world of local search.

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