Separate Domains for Different Locations (in Different Cities)
-
We are in the process of building a new website for a client with locations in Tucson and Phoenix. Currently, they have one website that encompasses all locations, however, we are going to build them location specific websites (as many of the services are different between locations).
Now my question is, as far as SEO goes, which one of these options would be the best?
Option 1: Have separate domain names for each location. For example, StevesPetTucson.com and StevesPetPhoenix.com.
_Pros: Easy to target specific, local keywords. Better looking domains. _
_Cons: Splits backlinks between two domains. _
Option 2: Setup StevesPet.com/Phoenix and StevesPet.com/Tucson.
Pros: Keeps all backlinks pointing to one root domain.
Note: We are going to use seperate WordPress installs for both websites, regardless of how we setup the domains. As we will be using different templates, menus and so on, we found this to be the best option.
Thanks for any advice!
-
Bill, thanks for the great advice!
-
Jeremy, a while back there was a time when having two separate websites was preferred. However, that's not the case anymore. It's more important now to build your site's Domain Authority and Trust, and then let that DA and Trust pass throughout the site to help all of your site's pages rank well.
If you were to have separate websites, then you would have double the work to build the same Domain Authority and Trust. If you had one site, it's not as much work.
Let's say, for example, you get mentioned in the media and they link to your Phoenix location page. Well, that Domain Authority and Trust will pass throughout the site--and will actually help your other locations rank, well.
So I would definitely NOT set up separate websites. But, you might consider registering those domains and 301 redirecting them to your location pages on your main domain name.
I would, though, set up separate Google Plus Local pages for each location, and make sure each is verified. They should also link directly to the location page, as well.
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
-
Is it deceptive to attempt to rank for a city you're located just outside of?
I live in Greenville, SC (who has a large "Greater Greenville" reach). I work for an agency with many clients who are located just outside of the city in smaller towns, sometimes technically in counties other than Greenville. Often, they provide services in the city of Greenville and aim to grow business there, so we'll use "Greenville, SC" throughout site copy, in titles, and in meta descriptions. Are there any negative implications to this? Any chance search engines think these clients are being deceptive? And is it possible these clients are hurting their ranking in their actual location by trying to appear to be a Greenville-based company? Thank you for any thoughts!
Local Website Optimization | | engeniusbrent1 -
How difficult is it to rank an exact match domain nowadays in 2017?
Hey there Mozzers! It's been a while since I've been back around these parts after working at a search agency many moons ago. I remember way back how it was stupidly easy to rank for something like "date ideas toronto" when I had an exact match domain www.cheapdateideas.ca and dateideas.ca (which I still own). Anyhow, I've been looking to build up my domain www.dateideas.net with hyper local date ideas and essentially looking to build this for the long term and expand after I hit a certain critical mass in terms of high quality content mostly written by myself to start. Eventually, if it makes sense, hiring authors or getting guest contributors to contribute to the blog if there's enough incentive to do so (which I'll figure out at some point). Question for y'all for a newbie that was semi-pro and now all my knowledge from before isn't so cutting edge. How would you guys approach it. I am looking to build this for the long haul, so it may very well be that some of your answers are "write amazing content", I'll be okay with that answer. Cheers, Will
Local Website Optimization | | will_l1 -
Duplicate Content - Local SEO - 250 Locations
Hey everyone, I'm currently working with a client that has 250 locations across the United States. Each location has its own website and each website has the same 10 service pages. All with identical content (the same 500-750 words) with the exception of unique meta-data and NAP which has each respective location's name, city, state, etc. I'm unsure how duplicate content works at the local level. I understand that there is no penalty for duplicate content, rather, any negative side-effects are because search engines don't know which page to serve, if there are duplicates. So here's my question: If someone searches for my client's services in Miami, and my client only as one location in that city, does duplicate content matter? Because that location isn't competing against any of my client's other locations locally, so search engines shouldn't be confused by which page to serve, correct? Of course, in other cities, like Phoenix, where they have 5 locations, then I'm sure the duplicate content is negatively affecting all 5 locations. I really appreciate any insight! Thank you,
Local Website Optimization | | SEOJedi510 -
What Is your view on wix domains?
For almost 3 years I am the owner of www.cheflekker.com. A wix domain.... It was sure easy to set up and still easy to change the layout. Only problem is... SEO. For the most part I find it difficult to monitor my site on areas of improvement and actually see the results. What is your opinion on the wix (ajax) program? any tips?
Local Website Optimization | | cheflekker0 -
Targeting different cities for my service - Geo landing pages
I am breaking my head trying to figure out the best way around this... so we have an hvac company located in nyc. We want to also target all the different boroughs. We have a bunch of different major keywords hvac repair + location hvac service + location along with keywords such as air conditioning repair + location, heating service + location , and so on..... Should each borough + keyword have its own page? Or should we just have one page called brooklyn and in that page target all the different keywords like hvac, air conditining, and heating ? Also does it matter how we have it laid out? Domaim/hvac-repair-brooklyn or should I add domain/service-area/hvac. ..... Some of my competitors have the same content written on each borough page just moved around a little with different city names, how are they ranking so well? Isn't that duplicate? Would love to hear from some people with success in this local area. Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | interstate0 -
Where does analytics pull information from for general keyphrases that do not list a city? Ex: Restaurants, Playgrounds, Librarys
I have heard that when doing a general search, the search engine will pull the results based on IP address. But what if that information is not available? Where does analytics pull that keyword information if there is no location associated with the keyphrase?
Local Website Optimization | | seomozinator0 -
Single sites per location as well as group site. Should we get rid of single sites & only keep group site.
Currently we have several single sites for each of our dealership locations as well as an automotive group site linking to each location(dealership) website. Currently there is no landing page for each location on the group site. To save money we were looking into beefing up our group site and getting rid of our individual location sites. 301 redirecting them to location landing pages on the group site website. Each site has about the same authority including the group site. Each dealership location resides in the same province(state) but some locations are a 7hour drive apart so not all within the same vicinity. I want to ensure we continue to rank well in each location. I won't be able to include all geographic locations in the title tag on the homepage of the group site due to the character restrictions. What would you recommend? Keeping the individual websites per dealership location OR focusing solely on a group website. I need to ensure we continue to rank well in each city where each dealership resides. Thanks for any recommendations! It's greatly appreciated. Thanks for everyone's thoughts & opinions.
Local Website Optimization | | DCochrane1 -
Having portal page that takes you to website with a different url
We are in the planning stages for this. Our client wants his (as yet) domain name to be a portal page for this new campaign. His domain name is a non-keyword company name (i.e. widgetsgalore.com) We already have a website with content tailored to his business ready to go. In fact, we did a campaign back in '06 to '09 that was highly successful. At that time it was just the webpage with a keyword rich url. Now for some reason the client wants his company name url (widgetsgalore.com) to be the portal page (landing page) that once potential clients click on it takes them to the website with the content. What are the pros and cons of doing what client asks about making his widgetsgalore.com a portal page vs. going directly to the url with all the content/forms, etc? This is a local site, with audience limited to southern california.
Local Website Optimization | | Manifestation0