What is the Best Keyword Placement within a URL for Inner Location Pages?
-
I'm working on a website with 100s of locations. There is a location search page (Find Widget Dealer), a page for each state (Tennessee Widget Dealers) and finally a page for each individual location which has localized unique content and contact info (Nashville Widget Dealer). My question is is related to how I should structure my URL and the keywords within the URL. Keywords in my examples being the location and the product (i.e. widget).
Here is a quick overview of each of the 3 tiered pages, with the Nashville page being the most optimized:
- Find Widget Dealer - Dealer Page only includes a location search bar and bullet list links to states
- Tennessee Widget Dealers - Page includes brief unique content for the the state and basic listing info for each location along with links to the local page)
- Nashville Widget Dealer - Page includes a good amount of unique content for this specific location (Most optimized page)
That said, here are the 3 URL structure options I am considering:
- http://website.com/widget-dealers/tennesee/nashville
- http://website.com/dealers/tennesee-widget-dealers/nashville
- http://website.com/dealers/tennesee/nashville-widget-dealer
Any help is appreciated! Thank you
-
#3 is a winner from my perspective, too.
Nice feedback on this thread, everyone. Great to see!
-
If no keywords in domain I would also go with #3 from a pure SEO perspective. Although post Hummingbird and post Pigeon I'm not sure it matters quite as much these days.
Just my 2 cents, no strong theory behind it except for good ole fashioned local SEO.
-
I get the same feeling when I look at the 3 options. My only hesitation is the old rule about keeping keywords early in the URL. Not sure if that really matter anymore.
-
There are no keywords in the domain. If there were I would definitely just go with dealers/tennessee/nashville and keep it simple and direct as you suggest.
-
Replying to your last statement if I were going to go with http://website.com/widget-dealers/tennesee/nashville, are you saying I should have the "widget dealers" page url be different and be just "dealers"? Wouldn't that confuse the bots on structure?
-
Just curious…are any of your keywords or location in the domain name?
If I were to search for this product, I would probably search something like "widget dealer Nashville Tennessee". I try to keep in mind what a person would search when structuring a URL. If your domain states the product, something like "www.widget.com/dealers/tennessee/nashville" would make the most sense to me.
Also, URL structure should semantically make sense as well as narrow down to the point of the page it links to. The URL affects SEO somewhat indirectly through user interaction and usability. Keep in mind, if you use long keywords at the end of your URL ("dealers/tennesee-widget-dealers/nashville") search engines will truncate it anyway in the results (www.widgets.com/dealers/.../nashville"). Basically, clean, simple, direct URLs are the best way to go.
Hope that helps
-
I agree Jarno! Option 3 looks and feels more logical than the others. I'd go with that as well!
-
Personally I would go with number 3, purely based on a feeling. Number 2 just feels and look wrong.
I think with number 3 you've got it all logically arranged. State / City dealer. Very logical.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards
Jarno
-
I would suggest not placing "widget-dealers" in any of the urls aside from the page that actually has the location search and bulleted list (which I'd assume is http://website.com/widget-dealers). Any state pages or location-specific pages could simply be structured as http://website.com/dealers/tennesee and http://website.com/dealers/tennesee/nashville respectively. This puts both the state and location closer to the start of the url; not to mention that shorter urls are generally better.
However, if you're adamant about using one of the 3 options outlined in your question, option 1 would logically be the correct structure as it tends from general to specific. The structure, from what I understand of your site, wouldn't make sense in the other two options.
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
-
What is the best way to display local landing pages in the site nav?
My client has multiple local landing pages and it looks a bit spammy opening up the top nav of e.g."Plumbers" to a long list of "plumbers Melbourne", "plumbers Knoxfield", "plumbers Wantirna" etc etc What is the best way of incorporating local landing pages into the site's overall architecture? Thank you.
Local Website Optimization | | Crystal.w0 -
Best practice for local keyword ranking in URLs
Hi, I have a large artificial grass website with many franchise location landing pages. At the moment i have most of the landing page URLs like this www.domainname.com/uk/city/ My TLD does not contain the keyword "artificial grass" so should I follow the location with the keywords /city-artificial-grass/ or is Google pretty savvy these days and will it know that I am an artificial grass company? I'm after the best recommendations for this if possible. Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Easigrass0 -
Local SEO for Multiple Locations - Is this the best approach?
Hi everyone! I previously have worked with single-location companies, and am now working for a company that is continuously growing and adding new locations. We are a financial institution that currently has 12 locations, and we should have 15+ locations by year-end 2017. Seeing as we have all of these locations, I thought the following approach would be the best for increasing our presence in local search. Our primary keyword is "credit union in location". Our search traffic has increased heavily over last year, but is down from the beginning of the year. I've gone through and done the following: Freshened up the content on the main website Created pages for each of our locations around April-end Attributed these location page URLs to our Google My Business locations Verified each location Wrote unique content for each page Our primary keyword rankings seem to fluctuate weekly. My next steps are to get our web design company to add the following: Structured Data on all location pages The ability to change SEO title and meta descriptions on location pages Sitemap (there is none currently, and I've been fighting them to get one added because it isn't needed.) I also plan on utilizing Moz Local to manage our local listings. After this is done I plan on finding ways for us to build links for each location, like the chambers of commerce in each city and local partnerships. Is this the best approach for our overall goal, and should I continue? Is there anything I should change about our current approach? I appreciate the help!
Local Website Optimization | | PelicanStateCU0 -
Does having a host located in a different country than the location of the website/website's audience affects SEO?
For example if the website is example.ro and the hosting would be on Amazon Web Services. Thanks for your help!
Local Website Optimization | | IrinaIoana0 -
Which is the best, ".xx" or ".com.xx" in general and for SEO?
Hi, I'm working for a digital marketing agency and have traffic from different countries. We are planning to make different websites for each country. What is the best SEO practice to choose the domain between ".xx" or ".com.xx" from Spain, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru?
Local Website Optimization | | NachoRetta
I think that the ccTLD is better always, for example ".es" better than ".com.es"0 -
Our rankings are all over the place but mostly keywords are dropping
our rankings are all over the place but mostly keywords are dropping from 2-20 to 35 and over 51. it has been happening over the past 3 weeks but don't know what to look for. any advise is appreciated. stevesautorepairva.com . our other automotive website hometownetire.com seems to be doing better but do not know why. they are 2 separate businesses. Thank you very much in advance for any help. AqDQnRx
Local Website Optimization | | ifixcars0 -
RE: Keep Losing Keyword Ranking Position for Targeted Keyword Terms Can't Figure It Out, Please Help!!!
Hey Mozzers, I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out why one of my clients keeps losing their SERP for their targeted keyword terms. We're actively pursuing local citations, making sure their NAP is consistent across the board and refining on-page content to make sure that we're maximizing opportunities. The only thing I've found is a 4xx error that my Moz 'crawl diagnostics' keep returning back to me, however, when I check to see if there's any problems with Google Webmaster Tools, it doesn't return any errors. Is this 4xx error the culprit? Are there any suggestions any of you could give me to help me improve the SERP for my targeted keyword terms. Anyway, any and all insight can help. I'm at my wits end. Thanks for reading and for all of your help!
Local Website Optimization | | maxcarnage0 -
Bing ranking a weak local branch office site of our 200-unit franchise higher than the brand page - throughout the USA!?
We have a brand with a major website at ourbrand.com. I'm using stand-ins for the actual brandname. The brand is a unique term, has 200 local offices with sites at ourbrand.com/locations/locationname, and is structured with best practices, and has a well built sitemap.xml. The link profile is diverse and solid. There are very few crawl errors and no warnings in Google Webmaster central. Each location has schema.org markup that has been checked with markup validation tools. No matter what tool you use, and how you look at it t's obvious this is the brand site. DA 51/100, PA 59/100. A rouge franchisee has broken their agreement and made their own site in a city on a different domain name, ourbrandseattle.com. The site is clearly optimized for that city, and has a weak inbound link profile. DA 18/100, PA 21/100. The link profile has low diversity and generally weak. They have no social media activity. They have not linked to ourbrand.com <- my leading theory. **The problem is that this rogue site is OUT RANKING the brand site all over the USA on Bing. **Even where it makes no sense at all. We are using whitespark.ca to check our ranking remotely in other cities and try to remove the effects of local personalization. What should we do? What have I missed?
Local Website Optimization | | scottclark0