GMB Hotel Categories Selection

[Nikos]

Hi all,

I would love to take your opinion for this.

I consult a hotel which is both a hotel resort, a 3-star hotel and a holiday apartment.

In fact, Booking.com list them as holiday apartment rentals, TripAdvisor as an apartment hotel, Expedia as 3-star hotel, Getaroom.com as a 4-star hotel. I'm confused. I do not know which categories to choose in GMB.

They prefer to get listed as "holiday apartment" but "resort" and "hotel" have more volumes according to Keyword Planner.

Should I choose based on volumes, competition on the local finder or what?

Thank you.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

The first thing I do when determining what primary GMB category to use is I will look at the other listings that are ranking and see what they're using. This is especially important if there are particular Search terms that you want to show up for. If 90% or more of the listings that are ranking are using a particular keyword you're most likely going to want to use that as your primary.

And then in addition to that this is the part of the Google my business guidelines that I would think about related to your business: "You should focus primarily on adding the most specific categories for your business; we'll do the rest behind the scenes. For instance, when you select a specific category like "Golf Resort", Google implicitly includes more general categories like "Resort Hotel", "Hotel", and "Golf Course." Feel free to skip adding any category that seems redundant with a more specific category you selected. If you can't find a category for your business, choose one that is more general. Google can also detect category information from your website and from mentions about your business throughout the web."

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[Nikos]

Hey Colan,

Thank you.

As you said, Google alters categories. In fact, I see "hotel apartments" being listed as "4-star hotels" in the local finder.

In addition, there is not an option to specifically choose the stars your hotel is. If you select "hotel", Google will assign your star rating based on external sources.

Choosing a very popular category like "hotel" will result in competing with thousands of other listings, whereas, choosing "resort" may cut competitors in half.