Linda Buquet
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If you deal with Google+ Local you know getting categories right is a big deal when it comes to ranking!
I've been telling consultants in my Advanced training that even though it's not spelled out in the Places guidelines, knowing the algo and spam filters like I do (or think I do) I believe the best rule of thumb for G+L cats is: Don't repeat the same KW more than twice.
Keyword repetition is what spammers do. So I think to having the following in categories would be considered spammy: Plumber, plumbers, plumbing company, plumbing service, plumbing contractor.
Once again Map Maker vs Places guidelines conflict or at least are not in alignment. Turns out the MM guidelines or at least the unwritten rules that "power mappers" and reviewers are privately told by Google are MUCH stricter than what Places guidelines allow.
Or really I think it's more like this: There are just so many unwritten or purposely vague Places guidelines that are not spelled out. So knowing the underlying MM guidelines gives us more of a clue about what is really allowed and what could be challenged as unacceptable.
CHECK OUT THIS IMPORTANT THREAD FROM THE GOOGLE FORUM. (Bold & red by me.)
It's from Flash AKA Gregg, a Google Regional Expert Reviewer and an active member here.
The Top Contributors have raised the issue with Google again about guideline inconsistencies between Places and Map Maker. Waiting for clarity.
More info on Map Maker categories: http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ep-dive-into-google-map-maker-categories.html
Google+ Local Category Guidelines: Remember that one thing the Places guidelines DOES clearly spell out is the "IS not DOES" rule. So be you understand how to 'test' that rule, be careful and abide by that one as well.
I know at least one Dentist that was suspended for violating the "IS not DOES" rule and the cats were Cosmetic Dentistry, Dental Implants, Invisalign and Laser Dentistry. ALL VERY COMMON DENTAL CAT AND ALL ARE A VIOLATION!
ADDITIONALLY now we also have the new Google+ category situation to deal with and where categories are more narrowly defined and custom cats are not allowed like they are in the Places dashboard.
OH AND ONE MORE THING... If it's a smaller town or especially if more of a niche category, you need to set location to that city and search for city + KW to be sure it even PULLS local results. It can vary by city because depends on KW volume. For example "Atlanta Notary Public" may pull local, whereas "Podunk Notary Public" may not. If Google does not show local results for that KW then you are wasting one of your 5 precious cats.
So category selection is MUCH trickier now and you really need to eval cats on numerous levels. I do a whole section of training on cats which was already very in-depth and now need to expand it AGAIN, to include the MM and G+ category issues. OR better yet, I'll just link to this post.
Another crazy Google Local conundrum!
What do you think?
I've been telling consultants in my Advanced training that even though it's not spelled out in the Places guidelines, knowing the algo and spam filters like I do (or think I do) I believe the best rule of thumb for G+L cats is: Don't repeat the same KW more than twice.
Keyword repetition is what spammers do. So I think to having the following in categories would be considered spammy: Plumber, plumbers, plumbing company, plumbing service, plumbing contractor.
Once again Map Maker vs Places guidelines conflict or at least are not in alignment. Turns out the MM guidelines or at least the unwritten rules that "power mappers" and reviewers are privately told by Google are MUCH stricter than what Places guidelines allow.
Or really I think it's more like this: There are just so many unwritten or purposely vague Places guidelines that are not spelled out. So knowing the underlying MM guidelines gives us more of a clue about what is really allowed and what could be challenged as unacceptable.
REMEMBER if a Googler or Mapper (or even a bot) gets eyes on a listing,
they MAY edit or delete it based on MM rules - not Places guidelines!
they MAY edit or delete it based on MM rules - not Places guidelines!
CHECK OUT THIS IMPORTANT THREAD FROM THE GOOGLE FORUM. (Bold & red by me.)
It's from Flash AKA Gregg, a Google Regional Expert Reviewer and an active member here.
Acceptable Categories on the New Google+Page - Google Groups
Nick - You are quoting the Places category. Again, Places is a small portion of your listing. Once on the map, the Maps rules take over.
Joy - Read the part {MM Guidelines} about using Restaurant and then adding Mexican Restaurant as a secondary category, because Mexican Restaurant does not exist as a primary category. However, if you are a Chinese Restaurant, which is a primary category, you are to put that and nothing more. You are not to start adding extra categories like "restaurant" "restaurants" "wonton restaurant", as you already have a specific category that covers it.
To quote: Never change the category from the best possible category to a generic or less specific one.
You are to pick the most specific category, and not add other ones. If there isn't something specific due to category limitations, then it is OK to choose a generic one as the primary and then add one specific custom one (but since the primary is not even accessible within Places, this doesn't translate over that you should put the generic in there. The generic would then end up as a secondary category and would be deleted by a Maps editor). The other category boxes are for other aspects of your business, not to add more generic categories. So adding "Takeout Restaurant" is fine, as that is not automatically implied and is another aspect of the business.
The concept of category spam is explained a lot more in the guidelines for reviewers, which are not public and thus I cannot directly quote. But it stresses more that similar categories that just repeat the same thing are spam.
This is where we are pointed by Google employees when they are explaining the concept. They themselves do the exact same type of edit I just did all the time, and deny edits that don't meet these requirements I'm not interpreting the guidelines, but rather I'm providing you what over a dozen Google employees have each consistently provided our group or me directly. They are also the ones that have stressed that the existing categories should be used, and exceptions should only be applied in cases such as the example where the specific category is missing. This is how it is consistently done within Maps, whether they use Map Maker or other tools. Places is the only exception, and you'll notice that they've been telling people "Sorry, your extra categories not from the list won't show" and "Sorry, in Google+ Business we won't allow these custom categories any more." It seems this is yet another place where Places is now being made to conform to the rules of Maps.
As for my choices, Plumber is a category. Plumbing Company is not a category. Thus Plumber should be the one used. Plumbing Contractor is somewhat implied by Plumber, but I looked at the Contractor categories and found all the construction ones were present except for Plumbing Company. They likely left it out since Plumber exists, but I applied a bit of leeway and added it in case general contractors are searching for subtrades. In reality it is sort of against the guidelines, but we're allowed a bit of leeway when we consider how it might be searched.
After putting Plumber as the primary and and leaving Plumbing Contractor as the acceptable categories, I removed "plumbing contractor", "Plumbing Contractors", "Plumber", "Service Plumber", "service plumber", "re pipe plumber", "plumbers", "Water Heaters", "water heaters", "drain cleaning" among others. If you can't see how that is category spam, I don't know what to tell you.
In the end, when someone has a leak, they look up "plumber". It is a valid category, and fits the "I am ..." statement, so it is the best choice. A map editor was going to change it to that, and likely would have dropped Plumbing Contractor also.
The Top Contributors have raised the issue with Google again about guideline inconsistencies between Places and Map Maker. Waiting for clarity.
More info on Map Maker categories: http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ep-dive-into-google-map-maker-categories.html
Google+ Local Category Guidelines: Remember that one thing the Places guidelines DOES clearly spell out is the "IS not DOES" rule. So be you understand how to 'test' that rule, be careful and abide by that one as well.
I know at least one Dentist that was suspended for violating the "IS not DOES" rule and the cats were Cosmetic Dentistry, Dental Implants, Invisalign and Laser Dentistry. ALL VERY COMMON DENTAL CAT AND ALL ARE A VIOLATION!
ADDITIONALLY now we also have the new Google+ category situation to deal with and where categories are more narrowly defined and custom cats are not allowed like they are in the Places dashboard.
OH AND ONE MORE THING... If it's a smaller town or especially if more of a niche category, you need to set location to that city and search for city + KW to be sure it even PULLS local results. It can vary by city because depends on KW volume. For example "Atlanta Notary Public" may pull local, whereas "Podunk Notary Public" may not. If Google does not show local results for that KW then you are wasting one of your 5 precious cats.
So category selection is MUCH trickier now and you really need to eval cats on numerous levels. I do a whole section of training on cats which was already very in-depth and now need to expand it AGAIN, to include the MM and G+ category issues. OR better yet, I'll just link to this post.
Another crazy Google Local conundrum!
What do you think?