Google Business Sub Categories for Cleaning/janitorial Company

Question

Is there a place that defines each Google My Business category? I am working on SEO for a Cleaning Company that provides janitorial services to local businesses/schools/hospitals..

Upon obtaining access to their Google Business Admin Page. I noticed that one of their sub categories was "Cleaners".

My initial thought was "Cleaners" doesn't mean what they think it means. I was thinking this word as a category would be served for "Dry Cleaning" and "Laundromat" businesses. However when you search "cleaners" on Google. The definition is someone who cleans.. And the first couple listings ARE cleaning/janitorial companies.

That being said ALL the local listings and other pages were indeed laundromats and dry cleaning businesses, which we don't want.

How do I find the exact definition for each Google category?

Answer 1

Google has a category called "Janitorial Service." Maybe they added it since you asked this question, but I would use that.

I don't think that "Cleaners" means "Dry Cleaners" because there is a separate category for "Dry Cleaner". Still "Janitorial Service" sounds like it would be more appropriate and more descriptive than just "Cleaners"

You might want to choose a something more specific depending on the specialty of your business. You might also want to add additional non-primary categories. All the possibilities you could use would be:

• Janitorial Service
• Cleaners
• Carpet cleaning service
• Window cleaning service
• Commercial cleaning service
• House cleaning service

Here is the Google help document for how to choose a category for your business.

There doesn't appear to be any official list of categories from Google other than the search/drop down to choose a business. There is no documentation as to which each category means. In fact, it appears you can create your own custom category just by typing something different that isn't in the drop down. The list of categories is just be a list of what other businesses commonly set as their category. It looks like it may have some human review or curation by Google, but not much because there is a lot of duplication and unclear categories within it.

Sources:

Answer 2

Here is the link to all of the categories, use the tabs at the bottom to select your language.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10QhWFmHYhZI7FL7cQZUqkDkRbexPVthEIfp8iibhA3s/export?format=xlsx&id=10QhWFmHYhZI7FL7cQZUqkDkRbexPVthEIfp8iibhA3s