URL for location pages
-
Hello all
We would like to create clean, easy URLs for our large list of Location pages.
If there are a few URLs for each of the pages, am I right when I'm saying we would like this to be the canonical?
Right now we would like the URL to be: For example
Domain.com/locations/ColumbusI have found some instances where there might be 2,3 or more locations in the same city,zip.
My conclusion for these would be: adding their Branch id's on to the URL
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/0304Is this an okay approach?
We are unsure if the URL should have city,State,zip for SEO purposes?
The pages will have all of this info in it's content
BUT what would be best for SEO and ranking for a given location?Thank you for any info!
-
Good advice again from Chas!
I think, given your situation, that the URLs you are using with the branch numbers are probably about as good as you can manage. Yes, it would be stronger for SEO if they could more keywords in them instead of just a branch number, but on a project this large, compromises sometimes have to be made.
One other item to mention - you have listed 'geosynthetic' locations. This is not a term I'm familiar with, but just in case you are talking about virtual offices, it's important to know that Google does not accept these. No P.O. boxes, no virtual offices. Each location you list in Places must have a unique local area code phone number and unique dedicated physical street address.
Hope this helps, and best of luck with the bulk upload!
Miriam
-
I feel once I obtain more information like type of service for the locations - this would be much better than the branch ID
For example we have:
Showrooms
HVAC Locations
Geosynthetic LocationsThese would be great to use like the dentist examples from above.
Thank you for the videos and info on Google Places. Great stuff for us to review!
Nick
-
F-
Google Places permits an upload of multiple business locations @ https://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#uploadfeed
you may want to review this help page:
Common issues that delay the bulk verification process:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173669
This caveat may hinder a bulk upload:
Multiple listings at the same physical location are not permitted within one feed. Please consolidate multiple services or businesses under one title.As for your example URL from an SEO perspective, underscores between words are a programming legacy from days when spaces could be misinterpreted between Unix and Windows servers and are not conducive to good SEO. With an underscore Google joins the two words and sees them that way so landing_page is seen as landingpage whereas landing-page is seen as landing page. See this Matt Cutts video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AQcSFsQyct8
Is there any other way to differentiate locations (branch ID) that convey more meaningful information (from an SEO perspective) and that would permit you to utilize Google Places? A suite number, even if it's superfluous?
C -
Thank you both
Yes, I found after going the street name approach we were finding long addresses, so it was looking spammy like you said.
Here is an example of our current Location Page - We are doing a huge project right now to redo the layout completely
http://www.ferguson.com/BranchPage/locations-finder/branch_landing_page.jsp?R=298&branch=0511as you can see the URL is long and this is why we want to make it user friendly and easier, so the Locations can easily give them out to their customers.
An approach I am taking right now is
Ferguson.com/locations/Goshen/NY/0304 0304=the branch IDThis reason is because I am finding a few branch IDs have the same address, so the only difference they have is the Branch ID
Does this look clean? It's not the approach we want to take. I would like to differentiate them with their service, but I am not provided at this moment with this info. There are over 1500 locations, but we are in the process of obtaining this info.
Somewhat off topic - Google Places, would one account allow for us to insert all of these locations? We should utilize Google Places Correct? My question is what is the approach for that?
Thank you all for your input - it is great help!
Nick
-
Hello Ferguson!
I agree with Chas on this that it's a little harder to answer without knowing the exact content. Most typically, I write URLs for city landing pages something like this:
whatever.com/city-state-service
For example, let's say the business is a mobile notary public in Berkeley, California. The URL might look like:
joenotary.com/berkeley-ca-mobile-notary
This would be for a business, and the landing pages might be for the different cities in which the business serves. Your situation is a little more complex with a single business with multiple locations in the same city and zip. Is your site a directory website? Or are you simply dealing with a single franchise's website? Perhaps you can give us a little more information.
At any rate, it sounds to me as if the only distinct items about the businesses would be their street addresses. How long are they? Would using them make them hugely long? What I'm describing would be something like this:
directory.com/joe-notary-123-centre-st
directory.com/joe-notary-39-brown-ave
a longer version would be:
directory.com/joe-notary-123-centre-st-boston-ma
It's not horribly long...but some businesses have really long street addresses with suite numbers and the like, so you'll have to judge whether an approach like this would start to look spammy.
Would this work for you? Has your question been answered? If not, please feel free to provide further details.
Miriam
-
Ferguson-
Hard to answer definitively without knowing your content/target. Numbers in your URL don't mean anything to SEs unless it's a keyword (like a ZIP, area code or model) - what does 0304 tell me or Google? You mention the possibility of multiple pages for a location, so if I assume the nature of the content for these pages is different I'd say you'd want to optimize the URLs to bolster your on page SEO. Let's say you have a site for dentists and the like, then your URLs might be:
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/OH/orthodontists
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/OH/dentists
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/OH/oral-surgeonsIf the differences are purely location within a ZIP code for nearly identical stores (think Starbucks) then I'd let Google Places do the SEO work for you.
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
-
Page Title Length
Hi Gurus, I understand that it is a good practice is to use 50-60 characters for the a page title length. Google appends my brand name to the end of each title (15 characters including spaces) it index. Do I need to count what google adds as part of the maximum recommended length? i.e.
On-Page Optimization | | SunnyMay
is the maximum 50-60 characters + the 15 characters brand name Google adds to the end of the title or 50-60 including the addition? Many thanks!
Lev0 -
Page grader says we are keyword stuffing but we arn't. Page source shows different story.
Hi community! We have just run a page grader for the keyword 'LED Bulbs' on whichledlight.com and it comes up that we are keyword stuffing! However, a brief look at the source for the homepage and there's only 6 times that LED Bulbs pops up. We do have the non plural version of the word 'LED Bulb' on the page 27 times.. do we think that would contribute to the keyword stuffing? Thanks!!
On-Page Optimization | | TrueluxGroup0 -
Wordpress Post as Slideshow - One long page vs many short pages?
We are working on implementing a slideshow format for some of the posts on a website, and it appears that using this format breaks a long post into several shorter pages. That's what we want from a user experience standpoint, but are wondering if there are negative SEO implications from having the content broken up in this way, and whether search engines will view it as one longer page or several very short pages? Here is an example: http://www.forthebestrate.com/10-cheap-ideas-for-summer-fun/ Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | ILM_Marketing0 -
Opencart category urls
Hi, I have a problem with the category urls in Opencart. I have duplicate page content because of this: www.mydomain.com/category and www.mydomain.com/category?page=1 are with same content. There is also a very new problem, there are new urls - autogenerated like this. www.mydomain.com/category/category?page1 These three urls are with same content and title. I tried with 301 redirect like this: RewriteRule ^category/category?page1$ www.mydomain.com/category [L,R=301] but it doesnt work. Pls help me.
On-Page Optimization | | ankali0 -
Pages exclusion
Hi there! I don't want to "make relevan"t 3 of the pages my website has. Should I give them a title and a description even if I dont't want them to be shown in the SERPs? Is there any penalty from google if I don't do so? I guess no but just to confirm. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Category listing page coming above product pages
A new SEO client we have taken on seem to be hitting most of the points right on with their site and SEO. However one thing that is bugging me is that their category pages i.e. "Footwear" which title tag includes the brands they stock. Is almost always coming up above (if they are ever even found) the product individual pages. Anyone seen this sort of things happening? Very frustrating.
On-Page Optimization | | iboxsecurityltd0 -
Pages vs Posts
What are your thoughts on pages vs posts? I am setting up a new blog for a client but not sure how to structure the content. I may just do posts or a whole bunch of page listed down the sidebar. It seems like my pages always rank better than my posts. Has anyone else noticed this? Could it be because of the dates tied posts?
On-Page Optimization | | SixTwoInteractive0 -
Page Title
My website was hacked last November and then again last week. Prior to the hacking we were at number one in Google.co.uk for our main search term "nile cruises' for years. After last November's hacking we dropped to about position 4 and after last week we are at position 7. Ima rebuilding the lost data and I am having to create new Title and Description meta data for each of the indexed pages. I am taking the opportunity to try and ensure my titles and descriptions are good and the correct length, etc but wondered about the best title format. I set our home page title over the weekend as: Nile Cruise | Leading ABTA & ATOL Bonded UK Nile Cruise Specialist I was going to try and cover 3 keyphrases in the title like this: Nile Cruise | Nile Cruises | Nile Cruise Bargains But I thought that might look a bit spammy because the 3 phrases are very similar. I wondered what anyone else might suggest? Thanks, Colin
On-Page Optimization | | NileCruises0