Category/Attributes in the Place Name (e.g. "Restaurant Europa" or just "Europa")

[DarioMangoni]

I know it may sound obvious, but it is not: should I put the category/attributes in the Place Name?
e.g. "Restaurant Europa" or just "Europa", leaving the "Restaurant" attribute to be specified by the category

I read the guidelines https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177, but I'm still pretty confused.

PRO
- scrolling the map you immediately understand what kind of place you are looking at; the icons does not always give this information (e.g. "Europa" can be a restaurant or pizzeria and still it may have the same icon)

CONS
- the category already holds this information
- the name gets longer and it may mess up the map a little, especially for smaller display

I understand that for bigger brands (e.g. Walmart) the category will be extremely redundant like "Hypermarket Walmart". What about in this cases?

[davidcox]

@DarioMangoni  The name is supposed to be just the legal name and brief.  In the terms, they say "Including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and could result in your listing being suspended."  It should only be the name, but I know you see a lot of examples that have more.

[Flash · Accepted solution]

Hello,

As already mentioned in the other thread that you brought this up in, descriptors are not permitted.  Adding the category on is adding a descriptor.

I should also mention that the legal name is not necessarily what is being sought.  In Maps right now we have limited editing of the names.  Places have multiple names, but right now we only have access to the Primary name, which is the name that is displayed on the map.  The legal name is recorded as an Official name, to which we do not currently have access.  What is being sought in the Primary name is the most common name, devoid of any descriptors unless those descriptors are integral to the name.

A good example would be the fast food restaurant McDonalds.  The legal name in my country is McDonalds Restaurants of Canada Limited.  The name that should be used on the map, however, is McDonalds.  (Note that in Canada it is McDonalds rather than McDonald's to make it bi-lingual).

Perhaps an even better example of not using the legal name would be Doctor's Associates, Inc.  That is the legal name of a restaurant chain with more locations around the world than McDonalds.  Instead we use as the Primary name Subway.  Note that Subway is the example Google has used for years as being proper naming, which Subway Restaurant is an example of incorrect naming.  (It is also used as an example of using proper capitalization even if the company uses all caps; it is to be entered as Subway instead of SUBWAY despite the company always using all capitals.)

For more about what I mean about descriptors being allowed if they are integral, read a previous post I made, and then the post I follow up with later in that thread.  The rest of the thread is optional, I summarize Google's rules in my posts.

[davidcox]

@Flash Thank you very much. It is now much clearer. I assume Google keeps track of the most common usage in all its data so if we match that we will be OK.  If in doubt guess or test what Google thinks sounds like a plan.   I will use this a lot to raise my approvals.

[DarioMangoni]

@Flash I understand the reason why one should avoid to being strictly adherent to the legal name, but the problem here has a little different nuance.
The examples you picked have very common names that any of us recognise!
In fact, I totally agree with you on "big brands" naming (like McDonald or Subway)

However, it is totally another story when it comes down to small local shops:

.e.g. I'm looking for an hardware store, I scroll the map and I see the "shop" icon : now, who knows what kind of shop this is?
Now I suppose that, if one is looking for "hardware store", they have to search for "hardware store" in the Search Bar and that's all.
Still, I found somehow confusing to have a map in which you don't really have knowledge of almost any Place category without clicking the placeholders one by one.