Google Business Profile Categories: How to Choose and Change Them

Google Business Profile categories tell Google what kind of business you are, which affects the searches you can appear for. You get one primary category and can add a few additional categories. Getting the primary one right is one of the simplest, most important things you’ll do on your profile.

Here’s how to choose them, how to change them, and, below, the categories real businesses use across more than 170 trades.

How to choose your primary category

Google’s advice is to pick the most specific category that describes your main business. Its own example: choose “Nail salon”, not “Salon”.

A few rules from Google’s guidelines:

• Describe your main business, not everything you do.
• Don’t use categories as keywords, or to describe features of your business.
• Don’t copy categories from nearby or related businesses just because they use them.
• All locations of a business should share the same primary category.

When you’re unsure, look at what the most successful businesses in your trade use. That’s what the table below is for.

How to use additional categories

Additional categories are for real departments or services. Google’s example: a grocery store with a bakery and deli uses “Grocery store” as its primary category, then adds “Bakery” and “Deli”.

Google is clear that you shouldn’t add a category for every product or service. Use a few that genuinely describe parts of your business, and put the rest in your services list and description.

Common category mistakes

• A broad primary category like “Contractor” when a specific one like “Roofing contractor” exists.
• Secondary categories for services you don’t offer, added in the hope of appearing for more searches.
• Changing the primary category back and forth to test rankings, which can trigger re-verification.
• Different primary categories across locations of the same business.
• Copying a competitor’s categories without checking they describe your own business.

How to change your Google Business Profile category

1. Go to your Business Profile and select Edit profile.
2. Next to “Business category”, select Edit.
3. In “Primary category”, type a category and pick it from the list.
4. To add more, select Add another category, type one and pick it from the list.
5. To remove one, select Remove next to it.
6. Select Save.

Category changes go through Google’s review like other edits. If one sits on Pending or isn’t approved, my guide on editing your Business Profile explains what’s happening and how to appeal.

Categories by trade

For each of my industry guides, I looked at the categories on the most-reviewed live Google Maps listings in the US for that trade, then recommended the primary category and the most common secondary ones. Here they are in one place. Select a business type to see the full category advice in that guide.

Use these as a starting point, not a rule. Only add secondary categories for work you actually do.

Not the same as Local Services Ads categories

If you also run Google Local Services Ads, note that its categories are a separate list with different labels. Your Business Profile category describes your business on Google Maps; your Local Services Ads category decides which ad searches you’re eligible for. My guide to Local Services Ads categories has the full list.

Categories are one of the quickest wins in local SEO. For the rest, see how to rank higher on Google Maps, or let me handle it as part of my local SEO service.