No Suitable Categories for Google+ Business Page

[Greg]

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well....

Busy setting up a new G+ profile for a new client that I have developed a website for.

So, created a new Gmail, G+ account. Busy trying to finish the setup for the G+Business account BUT cannot find a single category that matches what they do in their business......which is self catering accommodation.

I have trawled through every letter of the alphabet and there is not one category that matches accommodation in any shape or form....not one!!!

And when I type in "self catering accommodation" and click the Finish buttton a little flag pops up saying "We didn't understand your category. Please select from the suggestions that appear when typing."

Well Google - how about giving me some meaningful categories!!! I mean have you ever gone thru the list? There are some really strange categories in there...

What do I do to fix this?

Best regards

Greg

 

[Phil Rozek]

I know how you feel, Greg.

Two diagnostic questions:

1. Does your client offer flats with self-catering, or does he simply furnish those flats with kitchen equipment? (I’m from New England…this nomenclature is new to me!)

2. Are you submitting your page through the Google Places “dashboard,” or through Google+?

And two things that may help, if you haven’t seen them already:

Google Places Category Tool (by Mike Blumenthal)

13 Best-Practices for Picking Google Places Business Categories | LocalVisibilitySystem.com (my post from last year)

 

[Greg]

Hello Phil,

Yeah it just doesn't make sense that the categories are so weird....

Let me explain what I did:

1. First created new Gmail account
2. Set up G+ account for the owner (personal)
3. Busy setting up G+ Business account for the business****
4. Still to set up the G+Local account for the business

The challenge is to complete the G+Business account with categories that are appropriate for accommodation/guest cottages/self catering etc.

To answer your question, the client has a number of free standing cottages (various sizes - 2/4/6 bedrooms) that are set up as "self catering". This means that each is a complete unit with bedding, towels, crockery, cutlery and appliances. You buy your own food and do your own cooking. The business then services the units several times a week and provides fresh linen and towels....

Thanks for the links....Under Google (UK) the exact category "Self-catering Accommodation" comes up..... BUT firstly, the G+Business page doesn't offer any of the categories and secondly, it won't allow me to put my own categories in....

What I did was, just put an arbitrary entry in just to finish the page. Obviously this isn't satisfactory as the business will not get exposure in the right categories.

So any suggestions will be most welcome.

Regards

Greg

 

[Phil Rozek]

Interesting detail, Greg. You may be hemmed in by Google?s lousy selection, and bodging it may have to be good enough. But before just having to settle, there are a couple of stones you can turn over:

1. Let me know what less-than-ideal options you?re trying to choose between, and I can weigh in really quickly on which category seems like the least-bad fit.


2. See what your client?s competitors are using. Now that you chaps in the UK have MapMaker, you can just go to MapMaker, pull up the competitors? listings, and see what categories they use. That may give you some insights.

 

[Greg]

Hi Phil,

Thanks...

I'm in South Africa, but chose the UK option from Mike's list as closest to us.

I have been through all the category options from A-Z and there is NOT ONE option relating to accommodation of ANY kind.....no hotels, motels, guest houses, accommodation....NOTHING!!!

Have looked at a couple of competitors and 2 have "Lodging" and 1 has "Guest House" but have just tried to Edit the listing and none of those are options appear. Even when I type in my own and click Save it comes up saying "We don't understand etc...please choose from drop down etc"

Really frustrating!!!

Any suggestions?

Regards

Greg

 

[Phil Rozek]

Even if you're in South Africa, you can still use MapMaker in the way I described (if you haven't already).

Regarding your Google categories, you may be SOOL. Just pick the least-inaccurate option. What I'd suggest to make sure Google still "knows" what your client offers is to make sure that his third-party listings (AKA citations) are listed under more-accurate categories (wherever provided), and that you've specified the custom categories you want to. Google often "pulls" the categories from trusted third-party sites into the MapMaker record for a given business - which means it is recognizing those categories, even though you didn't specify them on the Google+ page.

In a word: knock yourself out with the categories on third-party sites and Google should place your client into the right buckets.

 

[Greg]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the reply...

Is it worth it to report this on a Google forum?

And is this the right forum?

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business

Regards

Greg

 

[Phil Rozek]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the reply...

Is it worth it to report this on a Google forum?

And is this the right forum?

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business

Regards

Greg

No problem, Greg.

Yep, that's the place. Certainly wouldn't hurt to post there. The answer(s) you get might be similar to mine, though.