Multiple local addresses for one domain
-
Hi Mozzers!
If I have a website that has a separate office in each state that they wish to rank locally for eg: "service CityA" "service CityB" etc
Would it be best to have a separate subdomain for each major city (unique content on each) with the office address specific to that city? Then there would be a separate Google places listing the subdomain as the website.
Or should we just use subfolders? Would Google Places accept the subfolder as the web address?
thanks!
-
Hi Joshua,
I was speaking from a Local SEO perspective, but I didn't make that clear. Sorry about that. You write:
"I just have a feeling that Google may see the subfolder landing pages as an attempt to game the Local listings"
Now, typically, when dealing with local clients with multiple locations, I simply create a unique page for each of the locations - just a file, and no need to build out with subdomains or subfolders. It sounds like perhaps you are dealing with a client with more complex needs than this?
I have searched to no avail for any reliable documentation which states that Google would view either subdomains or subfolders with suspicion or favor. I have never seen any discussion of a preference on their part. I'm not sure anyone but a Google Places rep would be able to offer you a reliable answer on this
A final note - be aware that when you designate any URL other than the homepage URL of a website as being appropriate on a Place Page, Google's display is likely to show only the homepage URL, but when you click on the link, it takes you to the page specified.
I'm sorry not to have a better answer to your question. I guess my answer is that there is an absence of data that Google would view either subfolders or subdomains as spammy in relation to Places.
-
the subdomain vs subfolder issue was more a question of 'which will Google Places/Local" prefer rather than a question of SEO value.
I just have a feeling that Google may see the subfolder landing pages as an attempt to game the Local listings
Any thoughts?
-
Hi Josh!
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum. You have gotten some excellent feedback on this thread so far. To recap your original question, you are asking whether it's better to use sub-domains or sub-folders for city landing pages.According to Google Places Help Forum Top Contributor, Archie Watt, there is simply no difference from and SEO perspective. I have never seen any data to the contrary. It's somewhat akin to the concept that Google doesn't care what language your website is coded in so long as they can crawl it thoroughly. Here is a thread on this topic at the Google Places Help Forum:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=3f77dd134ba635b2&hl=en
My advice - do what makes most sense for the user to use and webmaster to manage.
Best of luck!
Miriam -
It's really important to take that to heart. I get clients all the time that have had their listings/accounts rejected because they had been advised to game the local system.
But it's also important to understand your client. Back to Marriott, each of those locations is technically a different business (the hotel itself being owned by someone else, operating under the Marriott name). As an aside, it's also a ton of fun trying to establish and manage hotel Places listings while the brand is attempting the same thing for the same locations. Especially one so authoritative as Marriott.
And to throw another wrench in it, you also have to consider that Google attempts to solve as many problems as they can algorithmically (did I just make that up?). By this I mean that they don't know the inner working of your business/niche, they can only make assertions based on the info they find. I had no idea that all these Marriotts you see on the highway weren't actually "owned" by Marriott themselves until I worked with a hotel management group. The folks on the Local team didn't didn't either for a very long time.
If you're in doubt, or there is even a remote idea that your intentions are to cover more SERP space outside of legitimate reason, it's better to play it safe.
-
Here is what googles states
Businesses that operate in a service area, as opposed to a single location,
should not create a listing for every city they service. Businesses that operate
in a service area should create one listing for the central office or location
and designate service areashttp://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
-
Hi Joshua,
You can use 1 sub folder per City and submit all of your offices to Google Adress. But in my opinion if you want to do things in a better way, I would create one subdomain for each city since they would be more targeted to the city then having multiple subdirectories.
Subdomain + page name + content would be targeted to the queries that people search for this would be more targeted and you can link them indivually in their local communities individually.
Both ways are good for what you want to do, but I do prefer the subdomain approach since for me it seem more targeted.
-
Hi Joshua,
You can use 1 sub folder per City and submitted all of you're offices to Google Adress. But in my opinion if you want to do things in a better way, I would create one subdomain since they would be more targeted to the city then having multiple subdirectories.
Subdomain + page name + content would be targeted to the queries that people search for this would be more targeted and you can link them indivually in their local communities individually.
Both ways are good for what you want to do, but I do prefer the subdomain approach since for me it seem more targeted.
-
Hey Josh,
This really depends in the situation specifically, but I can give you a few cases I've had in the last year or so.
Generally, it's OK, to have each location on a sub-folder/page specific to that address; along with a Google Places page for that page. But it depends on the type of business, locations, etc. You can kinda ask yourself the intent on adding multiple Places listings as the resulting indicators are what Google will use.
What I mean is, if you have a client that wants to get a bunch of "addresses" so they can dominate a larger area in Google Places, then you are going to run into issues. Google doesn't like PO Boxes and the like (UPS mailboxes, etc.). I've seen/got them listed a ton of times, but they are more likely to run into problems later.
If you have real locations that a person can visit, then you'll usually be ok. I handled the Places pages for a Marriott client, and each location under the Marriott brand has its own Google Places page, with links to the specific page on the primary site.
On the other hand, I just took on a lawyer that was previously advised to get a bunch of FedEx boxes around town and use those for multiple listings. He came to me for a reason.
I'm really thinking that Google takes the business type into consideration, so be mindful of that.
-
One places listing per web site and location.
but this brings up aproblem of trying to get all this site to rank. Its hard enouth to get one to rank.
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
-
Global or Local
Hi, Our company has a .com website which we target various countries from. Its a young company with little or no SEO pedigree, and under 50 external links. We dont rank highly for anything except the company name. Here is the company website: www.pulse-advertising.com We are now expanding in the UK and I was wondering if we should be owning the .co.uk website and targeting that or should we continue with a .com url and try and localise it (UK address, phone number, etc). Finally, if you do suggest that we stick to .com, would you recommend we buy the local urls (.co.uk, .de, etc) and then put a redirect 301? Please suggest. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | ShishirPulse0 -
Can you canonical from one domain page to a different domain page
We are a boating site and have our main site with all it's products. We have an engine section within our main site. But we also have an outside domain, specific to a certain manufacturer of engines. So we want our customers to still find the engine information for this manufacturer within our main site, as well as find the manufacturer targeted engine site in the SERPS. My question is this: Can I canonical those pages within our main site to pages on the outside domain? Or does are canonicals to be used only within the same domain? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | tdawson090 -
Local on-page SEO
If it feels like you are doing something wrong, then you 'probably' are... Local on-page SEO When optimising a page for local SEO, and trying tick all the usuals boxes, you find yourself adding words like 'golf clubs leeds' which sounds awful when part of a natural paragraph of text. Does Google recognise this poor use of grammar? We try to be as creative as possible, as not to offend the visitor, but it feels wrong... any advice? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | indicoll0 -
What to do with 40 short articles to make room for 5 good thorough ones
Hello, On my life coaching website, I have 40 articles that I want to replace with 5 good ones (to get up-to-date in modern content writing). The new articles will be long, thorough, and graphically stimulating. What do I do with all these old short articles. There's no backlinks on them, but they are gaining a little traffic. I'm not sure I want them around since they're not high quality enough. What's normally done?
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Two Word Company Name (Combined to One) & SEO
Hi All, I'm dealing with a company that has a two word name like "GreatCompany". They rank #1 for that but not for "Great Company". The phrase is not super competitive, but obviously they are not writing the company name with two words anywhere on their site. Has anyone had to deal with something like this? Thinking about creative solutions but I'm fairly sure we're going to need to use the name both ways to have an effect here (or use PPC to augment) but I don't really love the idea of doing that... will feel very odd and inconsistent for visitors. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | ketanmv0 -
Targeting local keywords and service areas.
Hi, I run a small photo booth rental business in San Francisco, CA that serves the greater Bay Area. I've created different webpages for each location that we serve, ie: "San Francisco Photo Booth", "Oakland Photo Booth", "San Jose Photo Booth", etc.... I'm assuming that for each city, the strongest keyword would be "City-Photo Booth". However, I also want to target different variations of the keyword, such as: San Francisco Photo Booth: -Photo Booth San Francisco -SF Photo Booth -San Francisco Photobooth -San Francisco, CA Photo Booth -etc.... Will adding these keywords onto the same webpage dilute the relevance of my main keyword "San Francisco Photo Booth"? Also, is there any way to place these words within the text of the webpage so that it does not sound akward and unnatural to the reader? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | pharcydeabc0 -
Moving a site as a folder of existing one
We have the following case: Site A with domain authority 65 and 2,750 linking root domains (139K total links) and Site B with domain authority 68 and 1,336 linking root domains (38K total links) There's a suggestion to move Site A as a folder of Site B so it becomes something like this: domainB.com/domainA using 301 redirects for the existing domain A. We'd like to better understand what such move will result in. I imagine at first Site A will drop in rankings, but after that will it be better for it to be under Site B domain? Also, moving all the pages a step behind in the URL path may slightly affect their rankings. What do you think? Would you move Site A or leave it as a separate domain? I understand there can't be an exact estimation what will happen, but I'll appreciate your thoughts.
On-Page Optimization | | lgrozeva0 -
Do Schema.org changes impact local SEO
I've reviewed the various presentation and blog posts from SMX advanced regarding local SEO and I didn't see any mention of Schema.org and microformats. Has any research or case studies been presented supporting that implementation of Schema.org microformats will improve local results? Here is one example where I've implemented the basics in the address info of the footer. http://bit.ly/lZQYeg Any tips on how to further optimize with schema.org markup?
On-Page Optimization | | DotCar0