Categories and attributes

Categories and the “understand” step

In Bay Area AEO's description of query fan-out, the first step is Understand: the assistant works out what the customer is asking for. A question about “somewhere to get a custom birthday cake in Fremont” becomes a search for bakeries, specifically ones that take custom orders. Every listing platform has a category field that answers the same question from the business side. When the two line up, the business is in the pool of candidates. When they do not, it can be invisible for its own main service.

Category mistakes are common and easy to miss. A bakery listed as a café because it sells coffee. A med spa listed as a beauty salon. An HVAC company listed only as a plumber because the owner started in plumbing. A tax practice listed as an accounting firm with no mention of tax preparation. Each of these narrows the questions the business can match.

Choosing the primary category

The primary category should describe the main line of work, in the most specific term the platform offers. Specific beats broad: “Sushi restaurant” beats “Japanese restaurant”, which beats “Restaurant”, if sushi is what the business is known for. A good test is the phrase a customer would use when recommending the business to a friend: “it's a great pediatric dentist”, “they're the roofers who did our house”.

Where the business does two things equally (a bakery-café, a bar with a full kitchen), pick the one that drives the most revenue or the most questions, and use secondary categories for the other. Look at what the competitors named in the audit use as their primary category; the platform is probably treating that category as the match for the question.

Secondary categories

Secondary categories add genuine lines of work. A physical therapy clinic might add sports medicine and pelvic floor therapy if it offers them. An electrician might add EV charger installation if the platform offers that category. Add the ones that are true and leave out the rest. A long list of loosely related categories muddles the business's identity, and on some platforms it can draw scrutiny.

Matching categories across platforms

Google, Bing, Apple Maps and Yelp each keep their own category list, and the names differ. Record the chosen category on each platform in the master business record, so anyone updating a listing uses the same choice. Where a platform has no exact match, choose its closest specific category and make sure the services list and description carry the precise term.

Services lists do the fine-grained work

Categories are coarse. Services lists are where a business says exactly what it does. Google, Bing and Yelp all allow services or specialties, with descriptions. Use the service names from the master record, written the way customers say them, and give each a sentence that includes the condition customers attach. “Emergency leak repair, available 24/7 in Hayward and San Leandro” matches more questions than “Leak repair”.

The services list should match the website's service pages one for one. If a service has a listing entry but no page, write the page (chapter 17). If it has a page but no listing entry, add the entry. Each pair reinforces the other.

Attributes are the customer's conditions

Attributes are yes-or-no facts: wheelchair accessible, outdoor seating, free Wi-Fi, dog-friendly, accepts reservations, offers online appointments, women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBTQ+ friendly, languages spoken. Each one corresponds to a condition customers put into AI questions. Bay Area AEO's sample questions are full of them: “with outdoor seating”, “good Wi-Fi where I can work for a few hours”, “dog-friendly brewery in the East Bay”, “LGBTQ+ affirming therapist in San Jose”.

Fill in every attribute that applies on every platform. The lists differ by platform and by category, so check them after any category change. Bay Area AEO's coffee shop page lists amenity attributes as a signal in its own right: Wi-Fi, outlets, seating, accessibility, outdoor space and dog policy, filled in on Google, Yelp and Apple Maps and stated plainly on the business's site.

Say it on the website too

An attribute ticked on a listing is a single bit of data. The same fact written on the website in a sentence is something an assistant can quote: “Our patio seats 20 and welcomes dogs; water bowls are by the door.” Bay Area AEO's coffee shop signal says exactly this, that amenities should be filled in on the listing platforms and stated plainly on the site. Do both. The listing attribute helps filtering; the sentence helps the assistant write its reason.

Occasion and audience attributes

Some platforms let businesses mark suitability for occasions or audiences: good for kids, good for groups, romantic, business meetings, beginner-friendly. These answer the occasion part of a question (“birthday dinner for six”, “first date”, “for a beginner over 50”). Bay Area AEO's bars and lounges page lists “atmosphere in your own words” as a signal: descriptions of the crowd, noise level, dress code and best occasions, consistent across listings, so AI matches the bar correctly. Where a platform has a field for it, use the field; where it does not, put it in the description.

Attributes that change with the season

Some attributes are not permanent. A restaurant's patio may close for the rainy months; a brewery may host food trucks only on weekends in summer; a pool service may stop weekly visits in winter. Put seasonal changes in the master record with dates, and switch the attributes on and off when they change. An assistant that recommends a heated patio in January because a listing still says “outdoor seating” has sent a customer to a closed terrace, and the review that follows will say so.

When a platform assigns the wrong category

Platforms sometimes change categories on their own, or accept a user's suggested edit. A restaurant can find itself relabeled as a bar after a reviewer mentions its cocktails. Check categories in the monthly listing review. If one has changed, change it back and, on Google, look for an edit notification explaining why. If a platform keeps reverting it, its support team can usually fix the underlying record.

How niche signals translate into fields

Bay Area AEO's forty niche pages are a useful guide to which facts matter in each trade, and most of them can be expressed as categories, services or attributes. For gyms: equipment and amenities such as racks, platforms, turf, recovery equipment, childcare, showers and parking. For yoga and Pilates studios: each class type explained by level, intensity, heat and equipment. For breweries: taproom policies on kids, dogs, outside food, reservations and accessibility. For dessert shops: late hours and closeness to dining districts for “after dinner” requests.

Go through the niche page for the business's trade, list every fact it names, and mark where each one lives: a category, a service, an attribute, a description sentence, a website page. Anything without a home is a gap.

Checking the result

After setting categories and attributes, run a few audit questions that depend on them: one that names the category (“Pilates studio in Burlingame”), one that adds a condition (“Pilates studio in Burlingame good for beginners”), and one that names only the occasion (“somewhere in Burlingame to try reformer classes for the first time”). The third question is the hardest, and the one where listings, services, website text and reviews all have to agree for the business to be named.

Related chapters9. Google Business Profile · 8. The master business record · 17. Service pages an assistant can quote · 3. How an assistant builds an answer