Category Clarification

[Chris McCreery]

I think I already know the answer to the following but wanted a second opinion.
When selecting categories for a law firm:

Attorney = Is actually a Law Firm
Lawyer = this would be for the individual lawyer

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Chris, to me and I think to Google too they are synonyms. Do a search for city attorney and she'll bold lawyer and vice versa. A man with a law degree will say "I am an attorney" or he'll say lawyer, either one.

Most practice listings usually have both core keywords in there, with some more specific cats like Bankruptcy Attorney or Criminal Justice Attorney based on the type of practice.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Strange, the other day when I selected the category it let me choose Personal Injury Attorney (auto-populated that category) and today when I checked I notice that's no longer an option. It now only has Personal Injury Lawyer.

---------- Post Merged at 11:53 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:48 PM ----------

Ok I just selected various categories all said Personal Injury Lawyer, Insurance Lawyer, etc. Once I hit save and returned to look at the listing it has converted them all to Personal Injury Attorney, Insurance Attorney, etc. If I attempt to edit the categories again and type in anything with Attorney it gives me an error "We didn't understand the category"

Here is a screenshot after I entered Personal Injury Lawyer and it said it was a duplicate.

http://screencast.com/t/5XJwxoJnj

 

[Linda Buquet]

"I entered Personal Injury Lawyer and it said it was a duplicate"

Yes it's a synonym for Personal Injury Attorney, which you already had.

According to Blumenthal's category tool, looks like Google wants Atty for all the specific cats.

Not sure why you are getting all the "We didn't understand the category" warnings. Remove Personal Injury Lawyer which is not a default and I think those warnings might go away.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Strange, the other day when I selected the category it let me choose Personal Injury Attorney (auto-populated that category) and today when I checked I notice that's no longer an option. It now only has Personal Injury Lawyer.

Hey Chris,

I have noticed that the categories that auto-populate vary depending on whether or not you are in the Places Dashboard or the G+ Dashboard.

For example, when I start typing Personal Injury.... into a category field in the Google Places Dashboard it offers up "Personal Injury Attorney"

However when I type the same category into the field in the G+ Dash it offers up "Personal Injury Lawyer"

Is that possibly the reason for the two different formats you are seeing?

 

[Chris McCreery]

Thanks Colin, here's what's happening. I'm in Google+ and when I type in Personal Injury Lawyer, it auto populates. I then hit Done editing and when I look at the G+ listing the category states Personal Injury Attorney. If I then return to edit or add a category, it is now listed as Personal Injury Attorney. If I try to add another category and then select Done it will tell me that Personal Injury Attorney isn't a valid category. I then have to change it to Personal Injury Lawyer and hit Done editing. Seems like a bug in their interface.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sounds really similar to the G+ problem I and others have had where they can't get suite to stick. You put it on line 2. Then come back and it's formatted differently and up on line 2. You fix it. Come back later and there is no suite at all. Kinda makes you feel like you a losing it. But it's 'her' that's losing it!