Best way to select primary category? Trailing 'category' approach?

[WilliamGMBE]

How do you select the best primary category for your business? Has anyone tried a trailing category approach similar to 'trailing keyword' approach in SEO?

To explain further with an example. Say if I search 'Employment Attorney' then I get a list of businesses with 'Employment Attorney' as the primary category. See image 1 with GMB Everywhere chrome extension enabled. If I search for 'Attorney' though, then I get another set of business with 'Attorney' mostly as primary category. See image 2.

Image 1:

Image 2:

So, say if a business is both an 'attorney' and an 'employment attorney', would it make more sense to have the primary category as employment attorney and hence rank better on top? This is similar to the 'Trailing Keyword' approach we use in SERP SEO?

 

[whitespark]

The primary category plays a significant role in rankings, so you want to pick the category that is the closest match with the most valuable term you want to rank for. In most cases, this will be the more specific category, rather than the broad category. So in this case, it would likely be "Employment Attorney".

 

[WilliamGMBE]

The primary category plays a significant role in rankings, so you want to pick the category that is the closest match with the most valuable term you want to rank for. In most cases, this will be the more specific category, rather than the broad category. So in this case, it would likely be "Employment Attorney".

Thank you @whitespark . So, that is what I was coming at. Say if you are a law firm with a lots of different service like given in the image below. Wont it be better to target 'Employment attorney' which is less competitive and maybe get on the 3 pack rather than have it as 'Attorney' and rank on the bottom. Traffic wise, wont the trailing approach be better?

 

[whitespark]

Yes, I think employment attorney is the winner for multiple reasons:

1. Less competitive, so higher likelihood of ranking
2. The businesses website and online mentions are probably more targeted to the specific term than the broader term, so higher relevancy and higher likelihood of ranking.
3. This is the term that will drive more targeted leads that convert for the client, so better for business.
4. They probably don't even want generic "attorney" leads because they could be for any kinds of legal services that they don't even offer.

Usually, my advice is to always choose a more specific term rather than the broad term, but there are many firms out there that "do it all", and don't focus on one area of law more than the other, so in those cases "Law Firm" may be the best choice for them.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

Thank you very much @whitespark t

Yes, I think employment attorney is the winner for multiple reasons:

1. Less competitive, so higher likelihood of ranking
2. The businesses website and online mentions are probably more targeted to the specific term than the broader term, so higher relevancy and higher likelihood of ranking.
3. This is the term that will drive more targeted leads that convert for the client, so better for business.
4. They probably don't even want generic "attorney" leads because they could be for any kinds of legal services that they don't even offer.

Usually, my advice is to always choose a more specific term rather than the broad term, but there are many firms out there that "do it all", and don't focus on one area of law more than the other, so in those cases "Law Firm" may be the best choice for them.

This makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much.