I recently sat in on an Interfaith meeting with colleagues and was impressed by the warm way in which attendees shared stories of the central role their diverse faiths play in their lives. Such sharing is always an honor to take part in, and I can recall with very good feelings the many times in my own life when I’ve been personally welcomed to a variety of places of worship by the adherents of different religions.

While a Google Business Profile (a listing of a business or organization in Google’s local search results) can’t quite replicate the time a friendly Greek Orthodox priest showed me all over his incredibly beautiful church, it can stand in as a 24-hour online welcome for anyone wanting to know which places of worship exist in a given town or city.

It might be Catholic travelers needing to know where they can attend Mass while on the road, or someone in search of a retreat at a Buddhist monastery, or a Muslim family that has just moved to a new town and needs to discover the Masjid nearest them. Maybe someone needs to speak with a rabbi or discover if any special events are happening locally for Diwali. When properly optimized, your Google Business Profile (GBP) can be a signpost for your place of worship that helps people quickly find the right match for their spiritual needs.

In today’s column, I’m going to assume that you already have your GBP up and running and am going to focus on eight fields you should pay special attention to in order to offer the warmest possible welcome.

If your place of worship is new, or you’ve not yet created a listing, here is Google’s own documentation on how to do so, and I also recommend reading Chapter 1 of the Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide to get a quick overview of how Google’s varying local search results look and function. Once you’ve got a listing published, make use of today’s tips for using this valuable space on the web to convey as much information as possible to searchers wanting to connect with your place of worship.

I am using the broad term “places of worship” in this article to encompass any public place where individuals or groups of people practice their faith. I am not an interfaith expert, and I apologize if any of my terminology doesn’t precisely match the exact words used by practitioners of a particular spiritual practice. In writing this, I want to be sure to include two important notes:

1. For some people, a place of worship can be in their own home, or anywhere they stop to pray, meditate, or otherwise practice their faith. This article speaks to public, rather than private, places of worship.
   

2. In researching and writing this piece, I realized that Google apparently has no clear protocol in place for Google Business Profiles that relate to Indigenous sacred sites in the United States. For example, the place in Utah known as Bears Ears National Monument is a sacred site for multiple Indigenous Peoples, where ceremonies are held, medicines are gathered, and other important spiritual practices take place. If I search for “bears ears utah place of worship” Google’s organic results show me a variety of videos and articles that recognize this region as a sacred space:

However, no Google Business Profile comes up for a search like this, as it would if looked up something like “temple salt lake city” nearby:

I am not confident as to how this issue should be addressed, as creating a Google Business Profile requires you to state that you are the owner of the place. I cannot speak to whether Indigenous Peoples in this region would find it appropriate or not to state that they “own” Bears Ears, but it does seem like a scenario that would be good for Google to consult with Indigenous leaders about to understand how results for all the different kinds of places of worship can be represented with fairness, equality, and inclusivity.

1. Categories

You are allowed to choose up to ten categories to describe your place of worship, and the first/primary category you select from the choices Google gives you will tend to be the one that has the most influence on which search terms you rank highly for. Because of this, your place of worship should research what the most specific available category is. In other words, it’s typically better to choose “Methodist church” instead of just the broader category “church” if that’s the most exact description of your organization. As you can see in the above screenshot of a Google local pack result, each of the three churches has chosen a different primary category.

The free tool I find easiest to use for category research is this one from PlePer. Enter a term like “temple,” and the tool will return you a list of possible options in a column labeled “category name” like this:

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.

2. Hours of operation

Unless I’ve missed it, Google hasn’t announced a specific protocol for the ideal way in which places of worship should set up their hours, so there’s some need to be creative in approaching this area of your listing. Many institutions are open every day for a set number of hours for people dropping in, while their formal services are held on particular days at particular times. Still, Google doesn’t have a segment labeled “Mass times,” “Prayer times,” or “Worship services.” So, let’s look at your options.

My thanks to my kind colleague Krystal Taing for sharing the above example of a church in San Diego that’s indicating its Sunday service times via open hour segmentation in the main hour's feature. While these hours can’t be separately labeled as “Worship Services,” they are at least a hint to the public of when such services might take place.

And Krystal also shared a good example of another place of worship using the “More Hours” function of the New Merchant Experience (NMX) editing interface to list when its live online service is broadcast:

You’ll find such options in your NMX interface under the “Hours” tab:

Both of these options are a good way to indicate when people can come to your location, but there’s another area of your listing that can also provide vital information about your hours in more detail, and we’ll look at this next.

3. Google Questions & Answers

Via an informal study of the Google Business Profile Questions & Answers section, I’ve realized that questions about hours are probably the most common queries places of worship receive. Because the general hours of operation can’t provide totally adequate details, people turn to this section of listings to ask more specific questions. In the above screenshot, you can see a person standing outside of an institution wondering why it isn’t open and a member of the public doing their best to provide an answer. The trouble is, a random person may not answer important questions like these as accurately and officially as you — the owner of the listing — can.

The Google Q&A section permits the listing owner to ask and answer FAQs. So, the first thing you should do with this useful feature is to ask, “What times are services held?” or something similar and then answer with accurate information. A difficulty for many religious institutions in managing their listings is that service times frequently change during special seasons of the year. Look at this example answer for inspiration.

An answer like the above will fill in any deficit in the traditional hours of operation fields. Once you have asked and answered this most common question, expand the welcome your listing offers by asking and answering further FAQs for your community.

Here is an inspirational starter list based on my own survey of place of worship GBPs:

People want to know:

• What exact type of community yours is. For example, is it an Orthodox or Reform community?

• What is the accessibility for people with different abilities? For example, are there ramps, elevators, ASL interpreters, etc?

• What additional services does the institution offer? For example, are there study programs, youth programs, financial assistance services, counseling, meals, music programs, hospital visits, etc?

• Who does a member need to contact at the institution for particular services, such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, home visits, etc.?

• Where is parking available?

• Which languages are services available in, and how, when, and where are they accessed?

• What services are available online, such as live broadcasts and recordings, and how, when, and where are these accessed?

• Is anything required to become part of the community, such as an educational course or other process?

• Is there any type of dress code required for visiting the institution?

Remember that your listing will be seen not just by current members of your community but by first-time visitors who have been invited to attend a ceremony and by newcomers to your town or city. Consider what they might need to know to have a successful first visit, and ask and answer the questions they might have as helpfully as you can.

4) Photos and videos

If your place of worship is visually appealing and your members love being there, there’s a good chance they will be taking and uploading photos to your Google Business Profile. As the listing owner, you get a special tab called “by owner” (shown above) where your own photos and videos can be featured. Try to photograph some or all of the following aspects of your institution:

• Exterior images to help people locate the place of worship on the street

• Further exterior images to showcase outdoor features such as gardens, shrines, statuary, etc.

• Interior images to help people understand what it will be like to attend services or events there

• Accessibility and amenity images such as ramps, elevators, the doors of restrooms, parking lots, and additional buildings on the site such as chapels, halls, or offices

• Images of the leaders and staff, if appropriate

• Event images, if appropriate

• Seasonal images for various holidays

• A video welcome to your community

Google’s image and photo guidelines are here, and if you’ve never created a video before, learn how to do so for free by reading How to Create the Most Basic Google Business Profile Video with Canva, Even If You’re Not Great At This Stuff!

5. Social media links

Many faith communities have a strong presence on social media for the purpose of sharing news and fostering communication and fellowship. It adds to the welcome your place of worship offers to let people know how they can connect with you online socially. The above screenshot shows how your social media posts can be displayed for mobile viewers of your Google Business Profile (this feature is not yet available on desktop devices). While there is no guarantee that Google will definitely give you this rich display, the best way to prompt them to consider doing so is to add your social media links to your listing.

As you can see in the following screenshot, the above Meditation Center has added quite a few different social media profiles to its listing:

You can add these under the “edit profile” link in your New Merchant Experience interface:

6. Updates (formerly known as Google Posts)

In your New Merchant Experience editor, you’ll see a section called “Updates,” and if you click on it, you’ll see that you can add three types of different updates to get a display like the one shown above for Congregation Emanu-El about its young adult services.

Use “add update” posts to share any kind of news you’d like your community to know. Offers may or may not be relevant to your institution unless you have something like a community trip planned and are offering a discount on tickets.

Event posts can be used to highlight upcoming programs at your location, as is seen in this list of concerts and sporting events at a college campus church:

For events that require booking ahead, you can use a booking link on your posting that takes viewers to a calendar on your site or to a third-party ticket vendor, as is seen here:

Use of the variety of updates will help newcomers understand what an active community you have and will help existing members discover more ways to participate. You can read more about Google’s guidelines for these update features here.

7) Reviews

Reviews are one of the main places on your listing via which the public gets to share their experience of your place of worship. Hopefully, you’ll get lots of positive reviews like the above, and it’s a best practice to take a moment to use the owner response function to thank anyone who has used their free time to praise your community.

High-star reviews have a positive impact on local rankings, and because of this, many commercial enterprises actively encourage customers to leave them reviews. This sort of activity may not feel appropriate in a spiritual setting, but if you do want to take a more active role in improving your rankings by encouraging reviews, here is a list of things to avoid so that your listing won’t lose its reviews, be penalized in any way, or face any type of legal action:

Don’t:

• Review your own place of worship or have your staff do so; reviews should come from community members instead of people involved with the running of your institution.

• Don’t offer any type of perk, money, or gift in exchange for someone’s reviews.

• Don’t have community members review you on your place of worship’s own computers or devices; they should use their own devices.

• Don’t hire any marketing firm that offers to post reviews to your profile or to pay others to do so.

• If you decide to ask community members to consider writing a review, try to avoid asking too many people at once; a slow, steady increase of reviews is less likely to get flagged as suspicious than a big wave of reviews coming in all at once.

Hopefully, you will build up a good selection of positive reviews over time, with a few fresh reviews coming in on a regular basis. This will contribute to your overall average star rating and your rankings in Google’s local pack results, local finder results, and Google Maps. However, you can also expect to receive some reviews with a lower star rating from people who are dissatisfied with some aspect of your institution.

In the business world, responding to negative reviews is quite straightforward: you apologize, take responsibility for whatever went wrong for the customer, and ask if they’ll give you the chance to make things right. The scenario is a little more nuanced when it comes to negative reviews for your place of worship.

For example, a genuine complaint like this one that results in a 3-star rating is one that you could respond well to:

Apologizing that the acoustics at Mass made it hard to hear that day and saying that you’re investing in new microphones in case the visitor comes back to town would be a kind way to respond. But what if the negative review is like this?

My best guess is that this reviewer lives near a church and is annoyed by the sound of its bells. There isn’t a practical way to fix this scenario, but you could still respond with a kind word, even if the language of the reviewer isn’t terribly polite. Maybe something like,

“I’m so sorry if you find the sound of the church bells a distraction. We want to be a good neighbor and would like to invite you to the Parish supper, where we’ll be having a free three-course meal and a talk on the unique history of St. Mary’s bells. Doors open at 5 pm in the parish hall on January 12. Please, come eat with our community, Ronald, if you’re free. — Fr. Bill Donahue”

However, if a negative review mentions a legal matter or scandal like this one, it is not a best practice to respond:

In such cases, the institution should seek legal advice rather than respond to the review.

Finally, it’s an unfortunate scenario that spam reviews are a serious problem in Google’s local index. A spam review consists of any review that violates Google’s Restricted and Prohibited Content Guidelines. In a business setting, spam reviews most typically consist of someone who is not actually a customer of the business writing a negative review of an enterprise in order to erode its reputation. When it comes to places of worship, where no transactions take place, it’s next-to-impossible to know whether or not a negative reviewer has actually visited your institution or not, but we can still imagine a case in which a review of an institution like yours might still count as spam, meaning it can be flagged for possible removal.

Let’s say your institution receives a review like this,

“This church claims to revere creation, but they’ve sprayed toxic herbicides all over the green strip next to the sidewalk that the whole neighborhood has to walk on. I have two children and a dog, and I’m really upset about this pollution that now exists on our daily walk.”

But your institution has made a point of managing your grounds organically, and you realize from this review that the reviewer has confused your place of worship with the one down the street where you saw people spraying two weeks ago. In such a case, you can go to your New Merchant Experience interface, click the “read reviews” tab, click the three dots next to the review in question, and then choose the “report review” link. This will bring up this popup on which you could report this review as “Off topic” because it doesn’t pertain to your place of worship.

Google may or may not act on your report, but if they do, the review will be removed and will stop negatively impacting your overall star rating average.

8) Description

Last but not least, Google gives you 750 characters of space to describe your place of worship in your own words. This is an excellent chance to highlight the aspects of your institution that you feel will help interested parties decide whether or not it's the right match for their needs.

Things you might mention in your description include:

• Exact type of religion

• Year founded

• Guiding principles

• Services offered

• Languages spoken

• Current leadership

• Suggestions for anything a newcomer needs to know to make a successful first visit

• A call-to-action to visit your website for more complete information

The description field is located in the “about” section of your New Merchant Experience interface.

Many Google Business Profiles for places of worship currently have little more information on them than name, address, phone number, category, and a website link on them. By taking a little time to treat the eight fields we’ve covered today with more creativity, you can make an excellent impression on potential new members while helping existing membership discover more ways to be active in your faith community.

Ongoing efforts with elements like updates, photos, and review responses show that your institution is an active, welcoming one that cares to be found and chosen by neighbors. Wishing you success in your efforts to share your message with searchers who are looking online right now for a community just like yours!

Finally, if you work for a marketing agency that specializes in promoting religious institutions, you might like to check out Moz Local. Google’s New Merchant Experience may be sufficient for managing a single listing, but it is problematic for managing multiple profiles. Moz Local resolves this known issue by giving you a single, organized dashboard for managing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of listings all in one place.