Most cafes picked their Google category once, in a hurry, on the day they claimed the listing. Then nobody looked at it again. That one setting has a lot to do with which searches you show up for on Google Maps, and fixing it takes about ten minutes.
Here is how categories work, how to choose yours, and what we check when a cafe or restaurant asks us why they don't appear for "brunch" when they serve brunch every day.
How Google uses categories
Every Google Business Profile has one primary category and can have up to nine additional categories. The primary category is the one shown under your name on Maps, and it carries the most weight when Google decides whether your listing matches a search. Additional categories help you appear for related searches, but they count for less.
Google's own guidance is to choose categories that describe what your business is, not everything it sells. A cafe that sells banana bread is still a cafe. It is not a bakery unless it bakes on site and people come in to buy bread and cakes to take home.
Your category also changes what your listing can show. Food and drink categories get the menu editor, ordering and booking links and attributes such as outdoor seating and vegetarian options. Pick something unrelated and some of those options can disappear.
Choosing your primary category
Start with the search you most want to win. For most suburban cafes it is "cafe [suburb]" or "brunch [suburb]". For a restaurant it is usually the cuisine plus the suburb, such as "thai restaurant Newtown". Your primary category should match that search as closely as possible.
Some common choices and when each one fits:
- Cafe or Coffee shop. Cafe suits places where people sit down to eat as well as drink coffee, which describes most Australian cafes. Coffee shop suits a coffee counter with a small food range and mostly takeaway trade.
- Breakfast restaurant or Brunch restaurant. Worth considering if you close by mid-afternoon and the menu is mostly eggs, toast and pancakes. If "cafe" is the bigger search in your suburb, keep Cafe as primary and add these as additional categories.
- A cuisine category over plain "Restaurant". "Italian restaurant", "Indian restaurant" or "Vietnamese restaurant" almost always does better than "Restaurant", which is so broad that it matches everything and stands out for nothing.
- The specific dish, when it is the whole business. A place that only sells pizza should be a "Pizza restaurant", not an "Italian restaurant". A ramen bar should be a "Ramen restaurant".
- Bar, Wine bar or Pub, when drinks lead and food supports them.
If you are torn between two, check which one the places already ranking for your main search use. That is usually the tie-breaker.
Adding the right extra categories
Additional categories should be true, and they should match things people actually search for. A few examples of sensible sets:
- Brunch cafe: Cafe (primary), then Breakfast restaurant, Brunch restaurant and Coffee shop.
- Indian restaurant that caters: Indian restaurant (primary), then Restaurant, Vegetarian restaurant if a large part of the menu is vegetarian, and Caterer if you take catering orders.
- Wine bar with a full kitchen: Wine bar (primary), then Restaurant and the cuisine category that fits the menu.
What not to add: a category for a service you don't offer, a category just because one menu item fits it, or a long list of near duplicates. Adding "Vegan restaurant" because you have one vegan bowl puts you in front of people who will leave disappointed, and some of them will say so in a review.
How to see what your competitors use
Search your main phrase on your phone and open the top three listings. The primary category is shown right under each business name. Additional categories are not shown on the listing, but free browser extensions such as GMB Everywhere display them when you look at a business on Google Maps on a computer.
Write down the categories of the top three places for each of your main searches. Patterns show up quickly. If all three places ranking for "brunch Fitzroy" have Brunch restaurant among their categories and you don't, you have found one reason you aren't there.
Not sure your categories are right?
Send us your cafe or restaurant's name and suburb. We'll compare your categories with the three places above you on Google Maps and send you the first three things we'd change. Free.
Get a free cafe checkHow to change your category
- Sign in to the Google account that manages your listing and search for your business name on Google.
- Choose Edit profile, then Business information.
- Under Business category, change the primary category and add or remove additional ones.
- Save. Changes are reviewed by Google before they show, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.
Occasionally a category change triggers a request to verify the business again, so make sure you can receive a code or record a short video at the venue before you change it. And resist the urge to keep switching. Make one considered change, then give it four to six weeks before you judge it, checking your Maps position for the same searches each week.
Categories get you into the race, they don't win it
The right category puts you in the running for the right searches. Where you finish depends on everything else on the listing. Review count and recency matter most for most of the cafes we look at, which is why we wrote a separate guide on how many Google reviews a restaurant needs.
Your website should back up the category too. If your primary category is Brunch restaurant, the word brunch should be in your homepage title and your menu should be on the page as text that Google can read. We explain why in our post on PDF menus. For the full list of fixes in the order we do them, see how to get your cafe into the Google Maps top 3.
A quick note for US restaurants
Everything above works the same way in the US. The category list you see is localised, so the wording of a few categories can differ from what an Australian owner sees. Search the list for the plainest description of your business and pick the closest match.
FAQs
How many categories can a restaurant have on Google Business Profile?
One primary category and up to nine additional categories. The primary one counts the most and is the one shown under your name on Google Maps. Most cafes and restaurants only need three to five in total.
Does the primary category affect Google Maps ranking?
Yes. Google uses your categories to work out which searches your listing is relevant for, and the primary category carries the most weight. A cafe with "Restaurant" as its primary category will usually struggle to show up for "cafe" or "brunch" searches.
Should I choose Cafe or Coffee shop?
Choose Cafe if people sit down for food as well as coffee, which is true of most Australian cafes. Choose Coffee shop if you are mainly a coffee counter with a small food offering and a lot of takeaway trade. You can add the other one as an additional category.
Can I create my own category if mine isn't listed?
No. You can only pick from Google's list. If there is no exact match, Google's advice is to choose the closest, more general category, for example "Restaurant" or "Cafe", and describe the rest in your business description.
Will changing my category hurt my ranking?
Positions can move for a few weeks after a change while Google reprocesses the listing, and occasionally Google asks you to verify the business again. That is why it is worth checking competitors first, making one considered change, and then leaving it alone for at least a month.