Although attributes don’t impact rankings in general, they can help you rank in specific instances. But first, what are attributes?
Attributes help explain what amenities your business offers, like whether your location has Wi-Fi, or whether it’s wheelchair accessible.
Some attributes are editable by the business via GBP, and some are crowdsourced from maps users or are added based on Google’s understanding of your business based on your business website and other third party mentions of your business. These attributes aren’t directly editable by the business.
Google will often update the attributes that are available to a business – so make sure you check your GBP regularly to see what’s available.
Where do attributes show up in my Google Business Profile?
As always, Google is always chopping and changing how the business details show up in the SERP and in Google Maps and across other Google surfaces.
Why are attributes important?
While attributes don’t impact rankings in general searches like “restaurants NYC”, they do impact rankings when the search mentions the attribute (i.e. “women-owned restaurants NYC”).
You can see that, for this search, all the results have that attribute:
So, add any attribute that applies to your business. This will help people with specific wants/needs find you more easily.
How to add attributes to your Profile
Go to your Google Business Profile —> Edit Profile —> More.
Then, go through every section and check every attribute that applies to your business.
If you are a hotel or an accommodation business you’ll have an extensive section for attributes – select ‘hotel details’ in the NMX
And in here you’ll find a gazillion sections – work through and populate them all:
✍️ Note: Attributes are niche-specific.
For example, restaurants can get a “vegan” attribute and hotels can get “beach access”. Other attributes can only be assigned to a Profile by Google. For example, when a bar is listed in a prominent article about the best bars in NYC, it might get a ‘best bars in NYC’ attribute.
🔥 Pro Tip: Just because YOU might not be seeing the attributes you added show up in the way that the business shows in the SERP or on maps doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. Attributes feed directly into Google’s understanding of your business entity – so make sure you check in on the attributes available to your business regularly, and make sure you keep this section updated.