The category problem was much greater in the past when I wrote that article as Google only had 450 categories and no custom categories. At the time if you used any of the limited categories offered by google, google would use those to supplant any that had been provided by the Superpages. So the upshot during that timeframe, was that you had to remove ALL categories from the LBC to get into a given Superpages category in google maps results.

Google subsequently went to a more free form, expanded categorization structure, initially not requiring the use of any of their categories (now expanded to a total of 2239 categories*). Sometime this summer, Google started requiring that a user select one preset category as Brian noted and then allowing for 4 additional preset or custom categories.

What is still true is that
1)Categories are a primary mechanism for assessing relevance to a query
2) Categories in the LBC, even if only one, will trump (as in replace) any and all category information from other data providers.

So, that all being said, categories are critical to being considered relevant on any given search and should be chosen carefully to meet your short and long tail priorities. Given that there are only 5 total they become very important.

Mike

*The 2239 number for total categories includes plurals ie lawyer and lawyers as well as certain geographic place categories so there are not really quite that many. But the fact that the categories include both singular and plural should reinforce the sense that you need to pick them carefully

The custom categories can provide quite a boost. As Mike suggests, I’d play with those.

Wow. Visits and blog comments from Brian Combs and Mike Blumenthal, in a single day. I feel like Garth Algar in Wayne’s World when he met Alice Cooper: “We are not worthy! We are not worthy!”

If anybody stumbes upon this post in the future looking for good advice on Google Maps optimization, it’s a must to visit Mike’s blog at http://blumenthals.com/blog/ and Brian Combs is another local SEO expert worth reading at http://www.ionadas.com/ — his new venture focused on local search.

So, Mike, I had read this post of yours:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/02/07/google-maps-category-mystery-part-3-solved/

Based on that and some other research, I guessed that Google wasn’t including us in the right category. I think I had four custom categories there before. I actually just deleted them last week and went with a Google preset category for Public Relations Firm. I think I’ll let that change play out before I try adding custom for “PR Firm” as I’d like to think Google knows to treat “PR Firm” and “Public Relations Firm” as synonyms. No complex word sense disambiguation algos need for that, I hope.

In any case, thanks tons for the suggestion. I’ll keep following your insights on Google Maps Local Search optimization on your blog. Keep up the great work!