Multiple Local Domains and Location Pages Question

[Ben-R]

Hello Everyone,

So we have a priority site (domain.com) but also a geo-specific site for another location we have (domainNYC.com). Assuming both have completely unique content, different contact information and it’s justifiable to have a second domain (i.e. resources, brand/link equity…etc.) would it be recommend to also use the sub-folder approach on our primary (meaning domain.com/nyc)? And then potentially linking to domainNYC.com (just the once, not overdoing it)? Or just play it safe and keep them separate.

Our concern is doing both sub-folder and separate domain might cannibalize on local searches resulting in us essentially competing with ourselves for those terms. The benefit would be leveraging the priority domain and driving visitors there.

We could always ‘noindex, follow' the sub-folder page so users have access to the address on the primary domain too but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions as well as how it could pertain to linking (scarcely).

We have found a lot of information on choosing one over the other but not as much for whether both is recommended so any extra insight would be very appreciated.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Thank you in advance for the help!

Best,

[Ben-R]

Hello George,

Thank you for your response and help!

It seems like doing both is the way to go (assuming no duplicate content, GSC and Moz are being monitored). I did have a couple quick follow-ups just so I’m clear what you meant and you don’t mind:

• When you mentioned “…keeping things on the primary domain would be a better idea over time if …” – Did you mean that if it’s part of a regional strategy we probably shouldn’t do both and just stick to the sub-folders? I know that there’s tons of advantages to just using the sub-folder (especially from a resources/authority/link perspective) but assuming we need the separate domain I just wanted to be sure of you meant.

• Also, if the regional site should naturally win out for a local search but we would want to use ‘second’ domain for local searches would it be best to not do both approaches? – I imagine it would depend on the value being sent from the priority site vs. ability to rank on its own but though I’d ask.

Please let me know if I could provide any further updates that could help.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks again!

Best,

[wholewhaler]

Hey Ben,

This is a big 'it depends', but here are some things to consider:

• What is best for the user? Google will tend to favor this over time.
• Is this part of a larger regional strategy that you will be rolling out for other locations. In this case, keeping things on the primary domain would be a better idea over time if you are doing properly structured sub-folder urls
• If it is a physical location use Google Biz to register and link it properly to the main site you want
• use Schema.org to properly tag the info of the location

The regional site should naturally win out for a local search and using the main site to direct users to the regional _should _give it a bump in relevance. As long as you don't duplicate too much content on that sub-folder page it shouldn't compete. So I would go with that strategy, but then monitor MOZ and Search Console to see if it starts to cannibalize. In this case you can quickly remove your main site page from the index.

Hope that helps.