What strategies can you use when you're optimizing for 10 locations x 20+ services?
-
We have a client site (a dentist) that has 10 locations and 20+ services (braces, teeth whitening, cosmetic dentistry, etc, etc.). We're trying to figure out the ideal approach to optimally cover all their locations and services, but each option we consider has drawbacks:
- Optimize service pages for service name + each location name (or at least the biggest location names), with service name and location names in the title tag. That results in a too long title tag, plus possible user confusion, since they are searching for "braces richmond" but the title tag lists other cities, some of which are in a different state.
- Optimize service pages for service name + each location name, but don't include the locations in the page title. This is the current option being used, but it appears to be hurting the rankings at least a bit not having the location name in the page title.
- Create a page for each service + location combo. That will be 200+ pages, which will mean the pages will be deeper in the site, with less link juice.
- Create new domains for each location/state covered. But then we have to start over building link juice.
How have other sites dealt with this? What has worked best and what hasn't worked?
-
Hi Adam,
My short and sweet answer to this scenario is:
A page for every city and a page for every service
So, you'd have a total of 30 pages to budget and plan for (one for each of the 10 cities and one for each of the 20 services).
Most small local businesses are not going to have the funding for developing 200 exceptional pages ... what I've seen when small businesses try to go this route of developing a page for every possible service/city combo is that they end up with a collection of so-so pages at best and at worst, thin or duplicate pages.
So, for a client like a dental practice, I believe that a sterling quality page for every city and for every service tends to be an achievable goal if structured over a reasonable time frame contract.
I definitely do not recommend developing a different website for each city. Build a powerhouse and keep working on improving it for the life of the business. Hope this helps!
-
Since nobody has responded I'll share what we are currently doing with only two locations and multiple services. It's number 3 on your list. The caveat here is that we're still implementing this so the final results are not in. Here is what we're doing:
- Make sure you have a Google+ business page for each physical location to make sure that Google knows you're "local" and you can pop-up on their location snippet (hopefully!).
- On the contact us page or locations page (not sure what you have), we list each location with the physical/mailing address, phone number and a link that says "Directions" that navigates to the "city-office" page (or however you want to name it... atlanta-office for example).
- On the city-office page we have a nice write-up about this city and the office. We also include a google map of the location, full address, phone numbers, email, and the associated Google+ profile link for that specific location. Now here is the magic: Below that we have a list that has a heading of "Local [city] Services" that has list of of each service that links to an optimized page for that city and service. For your client the heading might be "Local Atlanta Dental Services" for example. You want each service listed to have the appropriate keywords/phrases in the anchor text.
- Create each services page per location and optimize it like a pro. WARNING: this method will run the risk of duplicate content when you start having multiple cities with similar pages. It is therefore imperative that you make sure that each page contains unique content. The "Atlanta Teeth Whitening" page, although identical in nature with the "L.A. Teeth Whitening" page, must have content unique to their respective cities. This is where the opportunity presents itself to create 10x content for each city (https://moz.com/blog/why-good-unique-content-needs-to-die-whiteboard-friday)
I suggest you start with one major city at a time, measure results, make any necessary adjustments and move on to the next city. The key here is that the content is unique for each service in each city. Sure, they can follow the same format, however make sure you put in the time to make each services page somewhat unique to that city. It may seem like a bit of a gray line that we're walking but, in my opinion, it's logical for expansion. Again the big risk is duplicate content but that can be avoided if done correctly.
Hopefully this helps! I would love to see others chime in on this and give feedback as I'm sure we're not the only ones in the world with this problem.
Cheers!
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 necessary to use Google's Structured Data Markup or alternative for my B2B site?
Hi, We are in the process of going through a re-design for our site. Am trying to understand if we need to use some sort of structured data either from Google Structured data or schema. org?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Krausch0 -
Link building strategy
Hello Moz Community, For the last couple of months we have been trying to improve our ranking in Google UK for the keyword "church candles" http://www.wattsandco.com/church-supplies/church-candles.html We’ve been contacting relevant interiors/lifestyle blogs to feature our candles including anchor text linking back to our page. Our anchor text has been predominately our brand (Watts & Co) but also other key search terms (Watts and Co church candles, Watts and Co pillar candles). We have been tracking our ranking for the keyword “Church candles” using the Moz “ Rank Tracker” and we started on position 15 in Google UK. We went up to 12 briefly before moving down every week to 15, 17, 19 and 22. We checked today and we have moved back up slightly to 19. Our progress seems to be a bit slow and inconsistent. We wanted to reach out for any advice on how we can move up? If there was any way we can improve our strategy? Here’s the links we have built so far: http://nostalgiecat.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/what-autumn-means-to-me.html http://blog.pollyrowan.com/2015/10/5-small-ways-to-decorate-your-home-that.html http://www.happyhomebird.com/2015/10/watts-co-candles-for-cosy-autumn-home.html http://www.frolic-blog.com/2015/10/beeswax-candles-for-fall/ http://hisforhomeblog.com/lighting/watts-co-church-candles/#axzz3qhqN1wzA http://lorilangille.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/sponsored-post-watts-and-co.html http://www.californiahomedesign.com/product-finds/waxing-poetic-must-have-candles Thanks so much!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | roberthseo0 -
Optimizing Product Catalogs for Multiple Brick & Mortar Locations
We're working on a project for a retail client who has multiple (5+) brick and mortar store locations in a given geographical area. They're regional, so they have locations in multiple states. We're optimizing their content (coupons, events, products, etc) across their site, but we're running into the issue of ranking well for specific products in one location, but not as well (or not at all) in others. The keywords we would like to rank for generally aren't super competitive, we're dealing with commodity products in local retail markets, so in most cases, good on page optimization is enough to rank in the top couple results. Our current situation: (specific examples are fictitious but representative) Title: My Company | Dogwood Trees - Fredericksburg, VA, Rocky Mt, NC, Rock Hill, SC…
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cballinger
Url: http://mycompany.com/catalog/product/dogwood-trees The content on the page is generally well optimized. We've claimed all the locations in Google places and we've deployed schema.org markup for each location that carries the item on the product page. We have specific location pages that rank well for Company name or Company Name Location, but the actual goal is to have the product page come up in each location. In the example above, we would rank #1 for "Dogwood Trees Fredericksburg VA" or just "Dogwood Trees" if the searcher is in or around Fredericksburg, on the first page for "Dogwood Trees Rocky Mt, NC", but not at all for any other locations. As these aren't heavily linked to pages, this indicates the title tag + on page content is probably our primary ranking factor, so as Google cuts the keyword relevance at the tail of the title tag, the location keywords stop helping us. What is the proper way to do this? A proposed solution we're discussing is subfolder-ing all the locations for specific location related content. For Example: My Company | Dog wood Trees - Fredericksburg, VA, Rocky Mt, NC, Rock Hill, SC…http://mycompany.com/catalog/product/dogwood-trees Becomes: My Company | Dogwood Trees - Fredericksburg, VA
http://mycompany.com/fredericksburg-va/product/dogwood-trees My Company | Dogwood Trees - Rocky Mt, NC
http://mycompany.com/rocky-mt-nc/product/dogwood-trees My Company | Dogwood Trees - Rock Hill, SC
http://mycompany.com/rock-hill-sc/product/dogwood-trees Of course, this is the definition of duplicate content, which concerns me, is there a "Google approved" way to actually do this? It's the same exact tree being sold from the same company in multiple locations. Google is essentially allowing us to rank well for whichever location we put first in the title tag, but not the others. Logically, it makes complete sense that a consumer in Rock Hill, SC should have the same opportunity to find the product as one in Fredericksburg, VA. In these markets, the client is probably one of maybe three possible merchants for this product within 20 miles. As I said, it's not highly competitive, they just need to show up. Any thoughts or best practices on this would be much appreciated!2 -
Should I use BOTH UBL and Localeze?
Would it be worthwhile to list a business with both UBL and Localeze?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DougHoltOnline0 -
Do you use your own Blog networks?
Do you use a network of sites you own for links to your clients in your seo efforts? I see so many seo companies doing this from such junk sites with all their clients in the blog roll, it seems totally crazy. It seems this stuff works do any of you do this if so how do you keep it white hat?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DavidKonigsberg0 -
Optimize a Classifieds Site
Hi, I have a classifieds website and would like to optimize it. The issues/questions I have: A Classifieds site has, say, 500 cities. Is it better to create separate subdomains for each city (http://city_name.site.com) or subdirectory (http://site.com/city_name)? Now in each city, there will be say 50 categories. Now these 50 categories are common across all the cities. Hence, the layout and content will be the same with difference of latest ads from each city and name of the city and the urls pointing to each category in the relevant city. The site architecture of a classifieds site is highly prone to have major content which is not really a duplicate content. What is the best way to deal with this situation? I have been hit by Panda in April 2011 with traffic going down 50%. However, the traffic since then has been around same level. How to best handle the duplicate content penalty in case with site like a classifieds site. Cheers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ketan90 -
Pro's & Con's of registering your customers?
I know that making a user register will drop the the conversion rate. However, there are a lot of sites that still stand by making users register before you can purchase. I was wondering if they know something that I don't that would outweigh the loss of those conversions. What exactly are the Pro's & Con's of making your customers register before being able to purchase an item?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HCGDiet0 -
Is 404'ing a page enough to remove it from Google's index?
We set some pages to 404 status about 7 months ago, but they are still showing in Google's index (as 404's). Is there anything else I need to do to remove these?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0