Site structure for location + services pages

[MJTrevens]

We are in the process of restructuring our site and are trying to figure out Google's preference for location pages and services.

Let's say we are an auto repair company with lots of locations and each one of them offer some unique services, while other services are offered by all or most other locations.

Should we have a global page for each service live with a link to the location page for each shop that offers that service?

OR

Should we built a unique page about each service for every location as a subfolder of each location (essentially creating a LOT of sub pages because each location has 15-20 services.

Which will rank better?

[MJTrevens]

Thank you Miriam!

This helps clarify some things. I was leaning toward a format like this so I'm glad to have a second opinion!

Now I just need to back it with some empirical evidence!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi There!

Great question! Before I answer, I want to emphasize that without knowing the exact competitive landscape of your specific geography, no one is likely to be able to make predictions about rankings. Because of this, I'm going to base my recommendations on what would likely offer the best usability experience to your customers, which often, in turn, is what Google wants, anyway.

I recommend that you:

• Create a landing page for each of your locations

• On each landing page, include a list of the services offered at that location

• Have the services listed in the list be links to a set of service pages, fully describing each service.

• Have the service pages contain a list of the locations in which they are offered, linking to those location landing pages.

So, in other words, you have a single set of location landing pages and a single set of service description pages that interlink as needed. But, you don't create another set of pages for every possible service/city combo. That's just too convoluted to be of use to customers.

Hope this helps!