How To Find Competitors Google Business Profile Categories [2026]

Learn how to find competitors Google Business Profile categories. Finding the GBP categories of your competitors can be useful for understanding how they position themselves and what services or products they emphasize. It can help you quickly see what categories you might also want to list on your Google Business Profile, without having to scan the full list of GBP categories.

Why Google Business Profile Categories Matter More in 2026

In 2026, this isn’t just about SEO anymore. Google Business Profile data now feeds AI Overviews and Gemini, which increasingly act as the front door to local visibility. If your profile is incomplete or unclear, those systems simply don’t surface your business. Complete, accurate categories help ensure your business is used in AI Overviews and conversational search responses, an important step in optimizing your GBP as part of GBP SEO efforts.

Google now uses Google Business Profile data as structured input for:

• Local pack results
• “Near me” searches
• AI Overviews and conversational search responses

Your primary category remains one of the strongest signals Google uses to understand what your business is, while secondary categories help clarify what else you offer. If your categories don’t accurately reflect your services, Google (and AI systems) may simply skip over your business — even if your website is strong.

How Google Uses GBP Categories in 2026 (Primary vs. Secondary)

Google still allows:

• 1 primary GBP category
• Multiple secondary categories

How your Google Business Profile Categories are Interpreted:

• The primary category defines your core eligibility for searches
• Secondary categories support visibility for related services
• Categories must match what you actually offer — not what you want to rank for

Changing categories frequently or choosing categories that don’t match your real-world services can reduce trust and visibility.

Best practice for 2026: Use competitor research to validate your category choices — not to copy them blindly.

How To Find Competitors’ Google Business Profile Categories – 2 Ways

Google has thousands of categories, and new ones are added regularly. Audit your primary and secondary categories at least quarterly to ensure alignment with your services and search demand.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on the different methods you can use to find the categories your competitors have selected on Google My Business:

1. Checking Secondary Business Categories Using HTML

1. Use Google Maps to find a competitor’s listing by searching for their name.
2. Make a note of their primary business category or copy it onto your clipboard.
3. Right-click or CTRL-click in the white space to the right of the primary business category.
4. From the dropdown menu , select “View Page Source” (in Chrome & Firefox), or “Show Page Source” (in Safari).
5. Hit CTRL + F (On Windows desktops) or CMD + F (on Apple computers) and search for the primary business category.
6. You should see one line of code in the middle of your screen. Scroll to the left until you see the primary business category written out like this: [\”Primary Category\”.
   This is the beginning of this business’s list of categories. Each listed category to the right of the primary category is a secondary category, and the list ends with the closed bracket (“]”).

The following video walks you through the process listed above. It can be easier to follow along visually.

2. Use 3rd Party Tools & Chrome Extensions to Find Your Competitor’s Google Business Profile Categories

There are several free / freemium Chrome extensions you can use to see your competitor’s Google Business Profile categories.

• GMB Everywhere
• GMBSpy

When (and When Not) to Change Your Categories

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is treating categories like a quick SEO lever.

Change your categories when:

• Your core services have changed
• You discover your primary category doesn’t match how customers search
• Competitor research confirms you’re misaligned

Do NOT change categories just because:

• Rankings dipped temporarily
• A competitor outranks you
• You’re testing SEO “tweaks”

Google does not reward frequent category changes — consistency matters.