Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your business shine with Listings AI
      Moz Local

      Let your business shine with Listings AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Should I Use City Name in URL?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Should I Use City Name in URL?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    5
    6
    6881
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • kylesuss
      kylesuss last edited by

      Having a website designed for a car dealership and deciding what attributes to use in the URL. Should I include the city name in the URL? Or does that help for SEO purposes?

      Other ideas of what to research or try are appreciated too.

      Thanks 🙂

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • dignan99
        dignan99 @MBayes last edited by

        While I have read that the importance of a business name matching the domain name exactly could be deemed extremely beneficial, having the city name in with the appropriate keyword, and proper optimization should make for an extremely strong listing.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MBayes
          MBayes last edited by

          Matt Cutts has referred to "keyword" domain names being an issue they are looking at. ( Missing citation here of exact quotes)

          We used city names for a long time, but have moved away from them, as we now have the same results without them. I should note that Bing seems to be highly sensitive to keywords in the domain, and I think the city in the domain is exactly that.

          Our research is limited, so take this as my 2 cents only.

          dignan99 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • DanHill
            DanHill last edited by

            Is it going to have dynamically created pages and URL's or are there going to be static pages? Personally I would include the city name in the URL (eg www.cars.co.uk/london-car-hire.html -> if it's going to be dynamic then you might do it like www.cars.co.uk/carhire/london)

            You could seperate your content by city and then town or if the company leases cars too(or might do lease to own option or maybe even rentals in the future) then it's a good idea to think about the scope so that it will be easier in the future when expanding 🙂

            edit : I realise my example is car hire and not sales but the same principal applies

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • mosaicpro
              mosaicpro last edited by

              1. I don't think in the domain name you should use your city unless you want to improve rankings on specific keyword match

              ex: you want to rank better for    car dealer chicago

              If you buy cardealerchicago.com exactly it will help you a bit  but any other variation ex:   if someone searches car dealer in chicago you domain won't get sort of the boost it need because is not exact match....

              SO unless what i mentioned 1st i suggest buy a domain that is easy to remember for the user so when he comes the 1st time straight away they remember the domain they landed. Great for further advertising, marketing etc.

              2. Now by reading your question again seems like you have the domain name domain.com/ and you are wondering if you should use it in the url   /car-dealer-chicago

              I think it depends on your on-page optimization if you can format you content to have these car dealer chicago everywhere then i think you can aviod using it in the url IF your website is showing ONLY 1 car dealer you should aviod that. If listing multiple car dealers in a specific city then yes definetly use it.

              So response 2 in my opinion avoid using city name in url as google knows the cities etc if you mention it in your content unless you list multiple car dealers in a specific area.

              Keep it short, clear and simple... everyone loves that including Google.

              Hope it helps.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • dignan99
                dignan99 last edited by

                If you are starting from scratch, I think it is extremely beneficial to have a keyword rich domain that includes the name of the city.  This of course depends what other words you have go with the rest of the domain name of course.

                I do not believe you will win with a keyword rich domain name alone, but again...it's a fantastic place to begin.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • 1 / 1
                • First post
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                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.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • seowork214

                  Using the same image across the site?

                  Hi just wondering i'm using the same image across 20 pages which are optimized for SEO purposes. I was wondering is there issues with this from SEO standpoint? Will Google devalue the page because the same image is being used? Cheers.

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seowork214
                  0
                • Rahim119

                  Competitor Title, can I use the same???

                  there are some pages, my competitor is ranking well and also, we have done page optimization it is 100% for page title keywords as im going to use the same title of the competitor? Will this affect me? Pls suggest wht should I do..

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rahim119
                  0
                • IceIcebaby

                  Using disavow tool for 404s

                  Hey Community, Got a question about the disavow tool for you. My site is getting thousands of 404 errors from old blog/coupon/you name it sites linking to our old URL structure (which used underscores and ended in .jsp). It seems like the webmasters of these sites aren't answering back or haven't updated their sites in ages so it's returning 404 errors. If I disavow these domains and/or links will it clear out these 404 errors in Google? I read the GWT help page on it, but it didn't seem to answer this question. Feel free to ask any questions that may help you understand the issue more. Thanks for your help,
                  -Reed

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IceIcebaby
                  0
                • djlittman

                  If I own a .com url and also have the same url with .net, .info, .org, will I want to point them to the .com IP address?

                  I have a domain, for example, mydomain.com and I purchased mydomain.net, mydomain.info, and mydomain.org.  Should I point the host @ to the IP where the .com is hosted in wpengine? I am not doing anything with the .org, .info, .net domains.  I simply purchased them to prevent competitors from buying the domains.

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | djlittman
                  0
                • BeytzNet

                  Is there a limit to images file names?

                  Hi, I have an eCommerce site with hundreds of product images. For management reasons files are named in length to have the product details in them.
                  Is there a limit for a filename length before it is considered ambiguous or spammy etc.?
                  (it usually ranges 50-70 chars). Thanks

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
                  0
                • Michael-Goode

                  Domain Name Change - Best Practices?

                  Good day guys, We got a restaurant that is changing its name and domain. However they are keeping the same server location, same content and same pages (we are just changing the logo on the website). It just has to go a new domain. We don't want to lose the value of the current site, and we want to avoid any duplicate penalties. Could you please advise of the best practices of doing a domain name change? Thank you.

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Michael-Goode
                  0
                • seoppc2012

                  Does Google index url with hashtags?

                  We are setting up some Jquery tabs in a page that will produce the same url with hashtags. For example: index.php#aboutus, index.php#ourguarantee, etc. We don't want that content to be crawled as we'd like to prevent duplicate content. Does Google normally crawl such urls or does it just ignore them? Thanks in advance.

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoppc2012
                  0
                • AU-SEO

                  Brackets in a URL String

                  Was talking with a friend about this the other day. Do Brackets and or Braces in a URL string impact SEO? (I know short human readable etc... but for the sake of conversation has anyone relaised any impacts of these particular Characters in a URL?

                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AU-SEO
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.