Developing location pages
-
I need to expand our service offering to another city and focus our SEO efforts to that new location. Would it be best to purchase a new domain name and make a new website very similar to the existing website so we can better target the search engines? Same look and feel as the existing website.
Or would it be better to create a landing page for the new location on the existing website to help stengthen the current domain name? If so, how do i focus the SERPs to the new location when the existing website is so focused around my current location?
-
I agree mostly with those above stating dont build a new web site.
Just to be different though - another option is a local sub domain. e.g. chicago.yourwebsite.com. This has advantages such as keyword in the domain name, it receives some link juice from the root domain and depending on your keywords you could get your root domain and sub domain in the same search results.
That said I have actually advised against this in the past as a sub folder on the root domain still has more chance of ranking well than the sub domain for lots of reasons I wont go into now.
-
I recommend not building new website.
Your time would be better spent building more quality links to the current website and to a subpage optimized for your new city. Expanding your service area will create many new opportunities to generate links including press & news releases announcing your recent expansion, local niche directories, new client websites, local news sources, local organizations & groups, etc. Increasing your current website's domain authority and building your subpage's page authority with these new links is where I would spend the majority of my time.
Also, when you create the subpage for your new service area be sure to include the "city name" and your service's target search term(s) in your title tag, meta description, headers, image atl tags, URL, internal links, and unique content. Also, if you have a phone number and address specific to that location, I would include those (search engines recognize area codes and addresses). If you have a physical location in your new city, create a new Google+ page with your new address, phone number, and use the city specific subpage as your website.
Good luck.
PS- PPC might be a good temporary option to increase awareness in your new location, while your subpage moves up the ranks.
-
"A dedicated landing page on the same domain is the best soultion. Make sure to target variations of the keyword and location."
So long as you don't have your current city within the domain itself...
If you do, then a new domain may be necessary.
Otherwise, make sure the new city is in the URL, title tag (etc., you know the score ) and ensure you mark up the address with microformats.
ALSO : some sites have their business location in the footer across all pages - make sure this isn't the case on the page targeting the new city...
-
Agreed. A dedicated landing page on the same domain is the best soultion. Make sure to target variations of the keyword and location. Keep in mind that most of organic search traffic will be generated from the local results. Here is a little secret in ranking in neighboring cities for local results even if you do not have a physical address there.
- Find a local office building that rents out suite numbers. Ask to purchase the mailbox associated with an empty suite. Most office buildings rent their vacant suite mailboxes for $20 a month, Fill out a google places profile reflecting this new location in a neighboring town and BAM! You will now rank in local results in you neighboring town.
Make sure not to spam you local listing and build quality citations from local business around your area.
Press Releases really help as well! Hope this helps.
-
Build a dedicated page with unique content for that city, and build local links FROM the city you are targeting.
If you are targeting "new york rocks" then build a page in your site www.domain.com/newyorkrocks and then build links from within New York to the NYR page on your site.
-
Hi! We're going through some of the older unanswered questions and seeing if people still have questions or if they've gone ahead and implemented something and have any lessons to share with us. Can you give an update, or mark your question as answered?
Thanks!
-
Thank you for your reply and i think my question may have been a bit confusing. I meant to say City, not location as in a physical location.
Currently, we focus our services to the city we live in, however, we want to also start focusing our services to another city.
From my understanding, you are suggesting to expand the existing website and eventually create a new website down the road?
If so, how do i modify my existing website to focus on the additional city without duplicating the same information already on the website?
Basically, all our services are the same, we just want to focus on another city at the same time. But in our industry, when people are looking for information on our services, it's an advantage to see the website is focussed on their city.
-
I always say, don't build a brand new baby website for your existing brand unless you're absolutely sure it's necessary - you're going to have to work hard to get it even just to the same level as your existing website, let alone beyond it. Plus, why cut your link profile in half? I'd definitely say build a page or section on the new location. Some things you can do to help SEs figure out you're in 2 locations:
- Make sure both locations are in Google Places or other local services. I highly recommend Universal Business Listing for this - one submission to UBL will put your business info everywhere it should be to send strong local signals. Well worth the low price.
- Mark up the addresses of each location on your site with hcard microformat - this says to search engines "here is an address." here's a wiki with everything you could possibly need on hcard microformat: http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard
- Upload a KML sitemap with your locations to Google Webmaster Tools. Here's a good guide on how to do that: http://www.martijnbeijk.com/tutorial/using-kml-for-local-seo/
- Use your city name in the title tags of pages that are about that specific location.
Best part about those last 3 suggestions - you can do them all for free.
Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Really, what are the benefits of creating a Google Brand page for an e-commerce site?
We have a jewellery store client who already have a Google My Business page set up for its store front business. Should we also create a Google Brand page for its e-commerce site (which has a different business name to the jewellery store)? This client already has a pretty robust Facebook profile. Is it worth it maintaining a Brand page then - since it targets Google plus users?
Branding | | Gavo
And what are the chances of a Brand page appearing on search results when you're not a Nike or a Calvin Klein? Thanks heaps in anticipation of your response.0 -
Gateway Pages
I have read that gateway pages are frowned upon by the search engines? If you have multiple domain names that are related to your main website what is the best way to get the greatest use from those related domain names? Thank-you.
Branding | | Road0 -
I have a company with multiple locations through out the US and I am trying to figure out the best way to use Google+ and Facebook.
Should I create separate pages for each location or should I create one account and add all my locations to that account?
Branding | | steve2150 -
Can i use the same keyword or similar keyword on title tag of multiple page ?
Greetings support, I would like to know if i can use similar keywords into my index title tag and than the similar keyword into the title tag of another page from the same site. Example:The site selling ''Dubai Apartments'' ''Dubai Vacation Rentals'' ''Dubai Holiday Apartments'' and ''Dubai Accommodation'' and would like to rank the index page for ''Dubai City Apartments'' and ''Dubai Accommodation'' and the category page /apartments/ for ''Dubai Apartments'' Is this ok ? because I do not want to lose the rank for the index page because it's already higher for ''Dubai City Apartments'' and ''Dubai Apartments'' I also have use this title tag on the home page: Dubai City Apartments | Dubai Accommodation | sitename brand and than i have category page such: /apartments/ title Dubai Apartments | Dubai Apartment Rentals | brandname /vacation-rentals/ title Dubai Vacation Rentals | Holiday Rentals Dubai | brandname /holiday-apartments/ Dubai Holiday Apartments | Dubai Vacation Apartments | brandname P.S. My index page is already rank for keyword such: dubai apartments, dubai holiday apartments, dubai vacation rentals and dubai accommodation but i want to know rank the category page. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Best, Giuseppe
Branding | | WorldEscape0 -
Do you have to have a Google+ profile page for a person before you can build a Google+ brand page?
There was some debate at MozCon 2012 about this issue. I have my personal Google+ page which I didn't want attached to the brand of one of the sites I manage. I saw no other way to create a new Google+ page for this brand except to create a new profile under a different gmail account. The problem is, I had to put in my personal name to create the profile (you can't put in a business name, Google won't accept it), so now I have two "Dana Tan" author pages in Google+, the second one is where I built the page for this separate business "Celebrate Communion." Unfortunately, this has muddied the waters because people are following me in both places (it's fragmented my circles). I would like to add customers who are already on Google+ to my business pages circles, but the business page won't do it. Is it possible to build a Google+ business page without all of this brand confusion? If so, can you send me directions? I have found nothing online that says you don't need a profile to do a brand page. Also, once the page is built, what is the best way for me to reach out to customers with google accounts? I don't see a good way to do that on businesses pages either. On my profile page I can load all the emails into my contacts list, but then those contacts can only be added to my profile page and not the brand page. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Dana
Branding | | danatanseo0 -
Should I put my "brand" in every one of my posts / pages?
I've heard different thoughts on this and wanted to see what you the seomoz group thought. I have been leaving my "brand" out of my titles so I could create longer titles (without my "brand" taking up precious space.) I've also read that adding your brand can take away from the words you want to optimize for in the title / post. I've read other places that you want your brand in every page title to "strengthen" your brand. Long story short, I'm trying to figure out if I should add my brand to the my page / post titiles, or leave them as is. Feel free to check out my site and current title template if you'd like. Thanks!
Branding | | NoahsDad0 -
Has anyone had problems with thier google maps page after the google plus intergration?
About a month ago Google contacted one of my clients to inform them that the Google places is discontinued and their Google plus page will be the new Google places. They gave my client an $100 adwards credit for adwords express so their location will still show up for their business name during the change from Google places to Google plus.. When you type in the business in a local area or on a GPS now.. It is no where to be found. You have to know the address to get directions or go there on a mobile devices. The Google plus page for all of these locations is not currently showing up either. I have contacted Google and Once again something has been released without implementing it correctly. No one seems to know what is going on... after talking to three people. Does anybody know what is going on ???? This is a huge deal when being a local company.
Branding | | JohnParker27920 -
How to increase page authority and domain authority? [Ecommerce]
How can I increase my Ecommerces Domain and Homepage Authority? My competition have 60-70 page Authority and it's time I try to compete.
Branding | | InkCartridgesFast0