This morning we noticed Google My Business Locations starting to toss “error” messages whenever you are saving a location that has more then two categories.
Here is a location with no errors when saved (and only two categories):
And here is what it looks like when you add a third category:
Tested this across a couple of accounts (including ones where multiple categories make the most sense for the business e.g. multiple brand auto dealerships) and saw the same issue. Not really sure what is going on but it may be a few things:
- A reduction in the number of allowed categories
- Google applying rules about which categories are the most specific for a vertical
- A glitch
Anybody else seeing this across there GMB locations account?
10 Response Comments
I can confirm. I have an account with over 300 locations. Most of them have 5 categories listed and already saved. There’s one location that only has one category and when I tried to add two more it gave me the exclamation triangle. Hovering shows an error message starting with “This category isn’t supported in US…”
@b
Interesting. When I checked in the bulk file to see what the error code was it just said “error”
Not for me. I just tried to add two more categories to my own and it let me. I added Marketing Agency and Marketing Consultant, and I was already listed as an Internet Marketing Service.
@rich
Did you do it on a single location, or in the Google My Business Locations bulk account? This wasn’t a problem I could replicate with a regular GMB account.
Yes, it was just a single location.
Interesting the error message says that the category is not supported “in US”.
Might Google have different category support in different countries?
We have multiple bulk accounts and haven’t seen this issue yet.
@Michael
Interesting, because it effected all of ours. I’m curious what differentiates yours from ours & others who saw this issue. Vertical?
@Dan
That was across multiple verticals such as urgent care, banks and insurance.
There was a point where the dashboard was error message yesterday for the categories of our insurance client but it stopped this morning.
Andrew, have you tried to verify any Google+ business properties in the last 2-3 weeks? My clients have not been receiving the post card in the mail, and when I call Google to verify over the phone, they tell me that it’s going to take 1-2 weeks for their Google+ page to be verified. Any insight?