Here is an alphabetized starter list I’ve put together of common categories for a variety of places of worship, but if you don’t see your best choice on this list, search PlePer to see if it exists. If not, you’ll need to choose the closest possible option for your primary category:
Abbey
Abundant Life church
Alliance church
Anglican church
Apostolic church
Armenian church
Assemblies of God church
Baha’i house of worship
Baptist church
Buddhist temple
Calvary Chapel church
Catholic church
Chapel
Christian church
Church
Church of Christ
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Church of the Nazarene
Congregation
Conservative synagogue
Deaf church
Disciples of Christ church
Eastern Orthodox church
Episcopal church
Evangelical church
Foursquare church
Friends church
Full Gospel church
Gospel church
Greek Orthodox church
Gurudwara
Hindu temple
Hispanic church
Jain temple
Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall
Korean church
Lutheran church
Mennonite church
Messianic synagogue
Methodist church
Monastery
Moravian church
Mosque
New Age church
Non-denominational church
Orthodox church
Orthodox synagogue
Parsi temple
Pentecostal church
Place of worship
Presbyterian church
Protestant church
Quaker church
Reform synagogue
Reformed church
Religious destination
Religious institution
Religious lodging
Religious organization
Russian Orthodox church
Seventh-day Adventist church
Shinto shrine
Shrine
Synagogue
Taoist temple
Unitarian Universalist church
United Church of Canada
United Church of Christ
United Methodist church
Unity church
Vineyard church
Wedding chapel
Wesleyan church
Once you’ve chosen your primary category, you are welcome to add additional categories if they apply to your organization. For example, an Anglican church might also choose “religious institution,” and “place of worship,” and “wedding chapel” if those categories apply. The very important guidelines for representing your business on Google recommend that you avoid redundant categories. In other words, if you’ve already selected “Episcopal church” as your primary category, Google suggests you do not also select the less specific “church” as a secondary category.
However, there is no known penalty for being redundant in categories as long as they are relevant to your place of worship, and some SEOs feel it’s a best practice to choose as many appropriate categories as possible. The choice is yours, but do be certain your primary category is the most specific one. Miscategorized listings will have trouble ranking for the appropriate searches. Questions about proper categorization often bring up the following FAQ:
How many listings should I have?
If there is just one building on your property, chances are, you are only eligible for one Google listing. However, an FAQ for places of worship that relates to categorization is what to do if your location has more than one type of destination on it. For example, what if your church’s property also has a rentable reception hall, a school, and a religious gift store? Should you find categories that reflect those resources and add them to your main listing for your church, or can you have a separate listing for each of these entities?
If a facet of your organization on the property has its own name, public entrance, phone number, and either its own page on your website or its own website, it is likely eligible for its own separate Google Business Profile. For example, St. Rose School and St. Rose Church may be on the same property, but they are two distinct entities. The same could apply to St. Rose Religious Gift Shop or St. Rose Event Hall. You can create a unique listing for each of these and only choose those categories for each listing that apply to each unique facility.
If, however, St. Rose Church also has a small chapel on its grounds that is used by the clergy and congregation for baptisms, but there isn’t a separate phone number for it because it’s really just an extension of the larger church, then this would be a case it which you wouldn’t typically build a separate listing but would add the secondary category, “chapel” to the main listing for the church.
These questions can be complex, and the section in Google’s guidelines on departments within other businesses, universities, and institutions can be very helpful in determining the right path for your place of worship.
