Local SEO same company two different locations
-
I have a client who has 2 locations approx 20 miles apart. He wants to reach new customers at the second office location. He is an owner of a law firm he practices elder law, in the second location he has an attorney who practices injury law. The second location is in an area where targeting prospects for elder law could also be lucrative. We currently have two separate websites for each area of law.
My question is...
Would it be suggested to create another elder law website to target the potential clients in this second location.
Also for the first location we have put in place a content marketing strategy that has increased revenue considerably. Basically creating content (blog posts) that resonate with the target audience. If a new website is in order can the blog post be posted here too with a canonical referencing the original website. Im thinking a slow redistribution of content on the new site.
Advice here is greatly appreciated as this new market for my client could increase revenue even more.
-
Hi Donald!
Good topic! Ideally, this is how most Local SEOs would suggest organizing a business with this model:
-
A single website representing the brand
-
A unique page on the site for each service
-
A unique page on the site for each of the two physical offices
-
Both offices on the Contact page and in the footer
-
A unique Google+ Local page for each of the 2 locations, and a unique citation set for each of the physical locations
Instead, what your client has done is to build out a unique website for each of their two specialties. Fortunately, as the business has two unique locations, many of the concerns that would normally surround such a strategy do not apply. If the client only had one office and had built out two websites - that would be a big concern. But, happily, this is not the case with your client.
Nevertheless, the drawbacks of your client's approach are that, instead of all of the work he does pouring into building up the strength of a single brand on a single site, he is going to have to split his energy and funding between two different sites. It's not as convenient to do this, but if the client wishes to stick with this approach, here are a few things to be sure not to do:
-
Don't share phone numbers between the two offices. Each must have its own unique local phone number
-
Do a citation audit to be sure that there are no merged listings and that the name, address, phone number and website for location A are not mixed up anywhere with those of location B. Everything must be separate and distinct at all times. The Google+ Local pages and citation sets for the 2 offices must be totally unique.
-
Do not put the address, phone number or URL of website A on website B or vice versa, anywhere. Keep these sites totally separate. Do not link from one website to the other.
-
Do not share content of any kind between the two websites. All content must be unique on the two sites.
Hopefully, following these steps, you can prevent merging of details, and can simply market the two sites the way any local businesses would be marketed. Hope this helps!
-
-
The second office is branded entirely different, The only thing it has similar is the business name. In fact both websites are branded toward their respective urls,
central jersey injury
mercer elder law
Each website makes note that there is another office in a separate location. The only thing that brings them together is the logo which is archer law office, llc They are in their own right two different businesses.
-
My apologies, I didn't notice that there were 2 sites already in place. If I were starting from scratch, I would have kept everything under one site.
So lets ignore office 1 and concentrate on the second. I would not go adding additional pages to office 1 because you don't want to run into difficulties where you are trying to compete against yourself for the same terms. No harm in mentioning it, but don't try and compete.
Office 2 should have it's own set of skills, keywords, location and Google My Business page. My only concern is if Google sees two websites for one business like this. It shouldn't be a problem, but there is always an element of unknown with Google and if you tie these in together through Google My Business, you might draw additional attention.
-Andy
-
So what would be the proper way of expanding the local search radius? We are doing fine about ten miles out. Should we create a second page dedicated to the 2nd office location? this is what i am asking for the best way to implement a local campaign for the second office. Remember there is already a lawyer in the second office location that practice injury law. Should a second page be created on the website about elder law? should I do it for both websites?
-
Would it be suggested to create another elder law website to target the potential clients in this second location.
I wouldn't do this Donald. The way Google views this sort of thing is 'why produce it on a second website, when the first website would do just fine'. If there was a huge separation in industries, then yes, it would be advisable, but for this, I would keep it all within the same site.
-Andy
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
-
English pages given preference over local language
We recently launched a new design of our website and for SEO purposes we decided to have our website both in English and in Dutch. However, when I look at the rankings in MOZ for many of our keywords, it seems the English pages are being preferred over the Dutch ones. That never used to be the case when we had our website in the old design. It mainly is for pages that have an English keyword attached to them, but even then the Dutch page would just rank. I'm trying to figure out why English pages are being preferred now and whether that could actually damage our rankings, as search engines would prefer copy in the local language. An example is this page: https://www.bluebillywig.com/nl/html5-video-player/ for the keywords "HTML5 player" and "HTML5 video player".
Local SEO | | Billywig0 -
Miriam's 7 Local SEO Predictions for 2019
Greetings to our great Moz Community! It's been a fascinating year in Local Search, and I thought it would be good to jot down a few of my personal predictions for the year ahead. I'd love you to add yours, as well, so that we can all think together about the local businesses we'll be marketing in the new year. Here we go: 1) Major player weaknesses could lead to a changing of the local guard Whether it's Facebook's ethics scandals or Yelp's downward stock trends, loss of public confidence could mean a shift in a local search platform hierarchy that's been pretty well established for some years. These brands' ongoing challenges could spell out opportunity for newcomer brands, or could simply drive more people to Google. Google has had its own problems this year, but nevertheless... 2) Google will continue to dominate and monetize local search For so many users, Google IS the Internet, and that's an advantage no competitor has been able to overcome. In 2019, I expect to see further monetization of local SERPs, including LSA, in-pack local ads, booking buttons, and other forms of lead gen. Local search marketing will become more spendy. For more on creating strategy in this environment, read: Why Local Businesses will Need Websites More Than Ever in 2019. And, for retailers... 3) Real-time Online Local Inventory will become a real "thing" I'll have an article coming out on this in early 2019 on the Moz blog (Update: Now Published: https://moz.com/blog/taking-local-inventory-online), but in a nutshell, we're on course to cross a new threshold in search. You'll finally be able to search for local inventory and get accurate information about who near you stocks what in their stores. Google's See What's In Store feature will be part of this, but so will emerging third party technology. User behavior will change as a result of this, and just like we've all integrated online mapping/local search into our daily lives, we'll soon be familiar with using search to find local inventory. This is really great news for retailers of all sizes! Meanwhile... 4) The line between brands and people will blur further 2018 has been a fascinating study in what appears to be a rising consumer expectation that brands align with customers at a philosophical level. We saw Nike's stock go to a record high due to their deft read of the nation and company alignment with Colin Kaepernick, while other retailers lost millions over culturally-insensitive content. Big rewards and boycotts represent the two extreme ends of this spectrum in which your CEO isn't really a private person anymore, but rather, a member of the larger society with a voice that will be assessed for its empathy to causes, groups and events. This puts brand employees in unfamiliar territory, having some of their fate rise or fall based on the public stances of company leadership, and it puts a new premium on skillful awareness of societal trends. Because of this... 5) Smart local brands will speed up focus on sustainability Political pundits are predicting that the 2020 US election may be referendum on Climate Change. This means that US customers will be inundated with messaging and news surrounding this over the next two years. We're already seeing big brands like Patagonia respond by saying that they're "in the business of saving the planet" and Salesforce co-CEO billionaire Mark Benioff promising that his company will be running on 100% renewable energy by 2022. I predict that a growing body of consumers will increasingly expect and reward sustainable brand practices. 2019 will be a very good year for the local businesses you market to do a green audit of their business model, implement change and then promote their Climate-friendly practices. Think big on this, because... 6) Reputation will be key Everything a local business can do to please and retain customers should sit at the core of the business model. Whatever it is that gets your customers to leave positive reviews, return for repeat business, recommend you via WOM to their friends and family, and view you as a vital component of local commerce will have a serious impact on your reputation, rankings and revenue. Google recently stated that 27% of local searches have an intent of reading reviews about a specific business and our recent State of Local Industry Report here at Moz found that 91% of respondents agree that reviews impact rankings. Reputation, and the awareness of its role, will be very big in 2019. 7) Link building will become more deeply integrated into Local SEO Local Search Ranking Factors 2018 cited links as the 6th most influential local pack factor. This means that smart local SEOs will double down on their organic skills and start pursuing relevant links for their clients with professional, organized strategies and good tools. Any Local SEM package that leaves out link building will be incomplete. All in all, I predict we're in for an exciting, challenging year in which clear vision and a dedication to service will be the keys to local business success. **Now it's your turn! Where do you see us going in 2019 in the local search industry? Please, share your own predictions! **
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis8 -
How does Splitting up social media presence affect SEO?
the situation is that we manage a dealership's web maintenance to improve SEO and SERPS rank do we need to have individual social media accounts, Google business pages, twitter, youtube, foursquare, Instagram, dealer rater, cars.com accounts, etc, for each brand, even if they are at the same physical address?
Local SEO | | EOBSupport0 -
Moz Local Reporting - What are you doing?
I am a pro when it comes to reporting for paid search. However we came out with a new local product and use Moz Local. What are you doing for reporting? Automated reports? Are you tracking progress over time? Is there a reporting application that automates the process?
Local SEO | | PSLab0 -
Best approach for international multi country SEO
Hi all We're working with a client that is in the travel industry and they already have a relatively new site (setup in September 2014) which is on a .com domain We've completed a digital strategy for them and have identified 12 key markets within Europe, North America, South America and the Asia Pacific region. We have suggested an approach of setting up individual local websites for these countries and for countries in the same region sharing a common language (like USA & Canada) we're thinking to use a subdomain on the existing .com (eg. amaricas.clientdomain.com) Does this sound like a solid approach? thanks
Local SEO | | seobackbone0 -
How to market web design and SEO company locally
Hello, I'm looking for easy (yah right, correct?) ways to market locally my web solutions company. I do web design, E-commerce web design, and I start informational and E-commerce companies for people starting at $1000/month - only new companies, later I'll do a little more E-commerce stuff. Looking for inexpensive, fairly easy ways to market locally. Thanks!
Local SEO | | BobGW0 -
SEO: Directory Listing Help with Two business locations in different states
Hello! I am in the process of building my second location, and will be moving to Nashville TN. My first location is located in ohio, and I am changing my primary location to nashville, but still want to keep my clients in Ohio... At least for the first year. As for directory building, what is the best option? 1.) Should I create two separate directory listings for each location and then direct www.domain.com to Nashville directory, and then www.domain.com/ohio-wedding-photographer/ to the Ohio listing in the directory? Or do you create one directory and mention I have offices in both Ohio and nashville? Is it bad to have two listings for each location if they have different addresses and phone numbers? Thank you!
Local SEO | | jean78780 -
How worthwhile is schema markup for a local business?
One of our clients was told that they need to implement schema on their website, and now they're very concerned that the lack of schema might be holding them back. We could certainly implement it for them, but I'm doubtful how much of a difference it will make. The client is a plastic surgery practice, so their content is fairly straightforward (services, locations, photo galleries, etc.). We're planning to add schema markup to their name, address and phone info in their website footer, but we're not sure if it's worthwhile doing anything beyond that. (I'm assuming schema markup for customer ratings would best be handled by a dedicated review management system like RealPatientRatings.com). What would you recommend for schema implementation?
Local SEO | | ClearPivot0