Google My Business Categories

Google My Business (GMB) Categories are a list of business categories maintained by Google. Businesses can choose from a predefined list of categories, with one primary category and several secondary ones, to accurately describe their products or services. The primary category holds the most weight for search visibility. These categories influence search rankings and determine the kinds of features (like booking buttons or review attributes) that are available on the listing. Accurate categorization helps enhance local SEO, ensuring the business appears in relevant searches.

Metadata

Publisher type Commercial
Publisher(s)
Jurisdictions Global

Available versions

  1. Google My Business Categories 2024 (Current)

Introduction

Each Google My Business Category is a title indicating a specific type of business, for example: Accountant, Beauty Salon, Car Wash, Yoga Studio, Zoo, etc. These titles do not have numerical or alphanumerical codes (as is the case with national industrial classification systems) and have only one classification level. Google doesn't give any guidance in terms of which title applies to which business. As of October 23, 2024, there are 4098 Google My Business Categories in the United States. The list is continuously being updated with the addition, removal, or renaming of business categories. Google doesn't have a fixed schedule for publishing these updates. Marketers and researchers can only scrape the data on a given day and deduce that it is the "current" version of the classification.

Going by information from Sterling Sky which tracks changes in the list of Google My Business Categories, in July 2024, 15 new categories were added to the list and no categories were updated or removed (the table below shows the changes in the categories between December 2020 and July 2024). The list of Google My Business Categories also varies by country. For example, according to PlePer.com which provides a search tool to explore the list by country and language, as of October 23, 2024, there were 3867 categories in France, 3094 in Japan, and 4084 in Australia. However, as noted above, these numbers are only estimates.

Period

New

Updated

Removed

July 2024

15

0

0

May 2024

19

7

23

January 2024

8

1

0

November 2023

7

31

0

September 2023

11

0

2

July 2023

11

0

1

May 2023

5

0

21

March 2023

14

0

1

January 2023

1

2

13

December 2022

3

1

9

October 2022

12

1

2

August 2022

8

1

1

June 2022

2

19

0

April 2022

6

5

2

February 2022

1

1

2

December 2021

15

2

3

November 2021

2

0

2

September 2021

3

0

0

August 2021

5

0

0

June 2021

1

0

0

May 2021

2

1

0

April 2021

3

3

2

March 2021

25

0

0

February 2021

43

2

0

December 2020

2

0

0

Versions

Google My Business Categories 2024 (Current)

Google My Business Categories were introduced in 2014 with the launch of Google My Business (GMB) which allowed businesses to manage their online presence across various Google services, such as Google Search and Google Maps. For businesses to create a profile on Google, they have to select one or more Google My Business Categories. Ideally, the most relevant category is selected as the primary category along with two or three additional categories relevant to the business (for example, "Jewelry Designer" as the primary category, followed by "Shop", "Jeweler", and "Jewelry Manufacturer" as additional categories). Businesses can select up to a maximum of 10 categories which, along with other factors, determine how businesses show up in internet search results, i.e. their local ranking. Following the above example, if a business owner chooses "Jewelry Designer" as their primary business category, their business might feature in local search results for items like "Necklaces" and "Wedding Rings".

Resources

Download Google My Business Categories list

Google does not publish a downloadable official list of Google My Business Categories. However, web-scrapped versions of the list are available from third-party sources such as the following:

  • PlePer.com: Updated at least every three days, according to the website. With the tool on the website users can filter the list by language and country and conduct other analytics.

  • daltonluka.com: Last updated on 2024-10-07

  • circleboom.com: Last updated on 2024-02-17

Where is it used?

  • Business Owners and Managers: Business operators are the main users of Google My Business Categories. Proper selection of business categories enhances search visibility thereby attracting relevant customers.

  • Digital Marketing Agencies: For businesses managing online presence for their clients, Google My Business Categories are a core aspect of a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to improve their clients' ranking in local searches and engage the attention of their desired audiences. SEO experts and consultants use Google My Business Categories to conduct different forms of analytics to understand how certain categories perform for businesses and adjust them as part of an SEO strategy.

  • Customers: Google My Business Categories helps the general public to easily find providers of goods and services. This is particularly helpful for consumers that are interested in buying from local dealers or producers.

  • Academic Research: Google My Business Categories provide an extensive ready-made list of internet search terms or keywords on a wide range of businesses of interest to different academic disciplines. For example, health researchers concerned about the consumption of unhealthy food (easily available from online food delivery services) have used Google My Business Categories in the creation of a platform to track the digitalization of local food environments in New South Wales, Australia.

Further Resources

Other resources