Subdomain question for law firm in Indiana, Michigan, and New Mexico.
-
Hi Gang,
Our law firm has offices in the states of Indiana, Michigan, and New Mexico. Each state is governed by unique laws, and each state has its own "flavor," etc.
We currently are set up with the main site as:
http://www.2keller.com (Indiana)
Subdomains as:
http://michigan.2keller.com (Michigan)
http://newmexico.2keller.com (New Mexico)
My client questions this strategy from time to time, and I want to see if anyone can offer some reassurance of which I haven't thought.
Our reason for setting up the sites in this manner is to ensure that each site speaks to state-specific practice areas (for instance, New Mexico does nursing home abuse, whereas the other states don't, etc.) and state-specific ethics law (for instance, in some states you can advertise your dollar amount recoveries, and others you can't.) There are so many differences between each state that the content would seem to warrant it.
Local citations and listings are another reason these sites are set up in such a fashion. The firm is a member of several local state directories and memberships, and by having these links go directly to the subdomain they reference, I can see this being another advantage.
Also, inside each state there are separate pages set up for specific cities. We geo-target major cities in each state, and trying to do all of this under one domain for 3 different states would seemingly get very confusing, very quickly.
I had thought of setting up the various state pages through folders on the main domain, but again, there is too much state specific info to make this seem like a logical approach. Granted the linking and content creation would be easier for one site, but I don't think we can accomplish this in a clean way with the offices being in such different locales?
I guess I'm wondering if there are some things I'm overlooking here?
Thanks guys/gals!
-
Crazy, I have quite a bit of experience with this exact scenario: law firms using geo subdomains to target specific areas.
Here's my findings and suggestions based on actual results and experience:- SEO on domain.com benefits atlanta.domain.com. This is a fact. If Starbucks decided to create subdomains tomorrow for every location, their subdomains would benefit from 91 DA. That's how Findlaw, lawyers.com and all those guys get first page placement with high DA and low PA.
- Digital Diameter is right, subdomains are more effective and directories are more efficient. UNLESS you have a really good multi-site CMS. Then you can be equally efficient and more effective.
I hope this answers your question, if you want some help or have any other questions, PM me.
-
Much appreciated... Can you see the reply above I sent to Mike and offer your thoughts?
-
Thanks, Mike. I agree with your reply, but I suppose my main concern is more associated with whether or not our site becomes too convoluted as we begin geo-targeting states and the major cities within them. It would seem to be an organizational nightmare, making sure that users are getting the experience they expect when visiting the site. Users in New Mexico don't care about Indiana law, copy, and vice-versa. There are so many topics related to specific states, and there's so much content, I worry about it becomes haphazzrd when restricted to one domain. Thoughts?
-
Subdomains (more effective):
In short the benefit is that Google will see each subdomain as a locally focused, independent site.
However, this is also the disadvantage of subdomains.
While they are more likely to be seen as locally focused, each subdomain will have to be managed, provided with unique content and links so it can quickly become much more effort.
Folders (more efficient):
Folders offer much more synergy as they are seen as a single site, but they are also seen as less local / independently targets than subdomains.
-
Randal,
I think in this instance first and foremost lets talk about url structure.From an organic search perspective structuring urls in this way (http://michigan.2keller.com) will hinder any positive seo you do on your main url. Google would view your current url structure as individual domains, therefore none of the seo strategy done on 2keller.com will transfer to the other domains.How the url is structured should not have any affect on how your add the content. We deal with national clients with multiple locations all the time. How you want to structure this is http://www.2keller.com/Michigan or http://www.2keller.com/newmexico. This would allow your team to only have to do search marketing work once and would add efficiency's to your work flow.
I know your main concern is the amount of state specific content. You can still create the pages the exact same way as before from a content perspective. Just have a solid internal linking structure on 2keller.com guiding people to the proper relevant pages or you could use geo targeting allowing the site to recognize IP address and auto-direct people to the right area. Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any questions.
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
-
Building new site on new web host with concerns
Hello, I have a domain with GoDaddy and current site is hosted there as well. I want to leave my domain with GoDaddy and build a brand new site on HostGator. The current website was designed to get us started. Not any significant traffic, backlinks, or SEO. The domain is not really what I want. There are 80 pages including those that are no longer in service. The keywords are not as relevant today. Current site domain is whiterocktech.net The new site will be very much different with SEO leading the way. We have designed it yet have not opened an account yet with HostGator. In addition, we have found a shorter more appropriate domain name. Not ideal but easy to type in yet it has a dash. This site is wr-crm.com. Questions: Does it make sense to "cut bait" from the current site given the lack use? Does it make sense to build the site and still set redirects from the old domain pages to a new one? Given so little traffic, is there really an effect on SEO if we sunset the old domain? Could I strip out the old domain website and just post a message on one page to come to our new site until old domain expires? I appreciate any insights on helping me with this decision. Mike
Technical SEO | | mmcgibbony0 -
Fundamental HTTP to HTTPS Redirect Question
Hi All I'm planning a http to https migration for a site with over 500 pages. The site content and structure will be staying the same, this is simply a https migration. Can I just confirm the answer to this fundamental question? From my reading, I do not need to create 301 redirect for each and every page, but can add a single generic redirect so that all http references are redirected to https. Can I just double check this would suffice to preserve existing google rankings? Many Thanks
Technical SEO | | ruislip180 -
Impact of Non SEO Subdomains
My company has several subdomains whose specific purpose is to act as a landing page/site for our paid search and/or email program. One of the things I've noticed on these subdomains is that they are not being excluded from the SEObots. Could the lack of proper SEO techniques on these subdomains impact our main www subdomain? What is the proper configuration we should use to make sure these sites are not considered for SEO?
Technical SEO | | APFM0 -
Mobile website question
Hi Mozzers, A website I manage has a mobile friendly version of their main website and a /m version as well. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in the best way of handling this? Should we just get rid of the /m version and tag the mobile friendly version? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | KarlBantleman0 -
Wordpress Categories and Over-Optimization Question
I would like to switch my sidebar from listing Category Name with posts listed below each- to a concise custom menu. This custom menu would list the top three products I am promoting first, and then go on to list the categories on my site. Currently it looks like this (but with 6 categories, with between 7-10 items in each - this is on EVERY page) Widgets
Technical SEO | | PrivatePartners
-Green Widget
-Blue Widget Gidwets
-Big Gidwet
-Small Gidwet I rank well in google right now, but I am concerned that changing my sidebar will result in a penalty. Maybe for over-optimizing my top three products I promote, or possibly for trying to control the flow of link juice. Can anyone chime in here who has adjusted their site structure within wordpress, and tell me what you found worked best? ** Before anyone asks**, this structure does work much better for the user. My sidebar now is massive, and is confusing even to me.0 -
Rel canonical question
Hi, I have an e-commerce site hosted on Volusion currently the rel canonical link for the homepage points to www.store.com/default.asp. I spoke with the Volusion support people and they told me that whether the canonical link points to store.com/default.asp or store.com does not really matter as long as there is a canonical version. I thought this sounded odd, so looked at other websites hosted on volusion and some sites canonicalize to default.asp and others .com. (volusion.com canonicalizes to .com fwiw). The question is...I have a majority of my external links going to www.store.com , and since that page has default.asp as it canonical version, am I losing link juice from those incoming links? If so, should I change the canonical link? If I do what are the potential issues/penalties? Hopefully this question makes sense and thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | IOSC0 -
Magento URL Question
Calling all Magento Kings out there! I'm working on a client' site - powered by magento. I'm looking to rewrite a lot of the URLs. I know there is the URL rewrite tool, but I think what I need to do may go beyond this. Typical example would be: Old URL - http://www.xxxxxxxx.co.uk/fabric/product/product-black-screen-print-and-silver-fabric.html New URL - http://www.xxxxxx.co.uk/fabric/product/silver I know that magento's URLs seem to be created through categories so wanted to double check with someone the best way to do this. Also, I've heard that 301 redirects of non www to www in the .htaccess has a knock on effect on discounts? All comments greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | PerchDigital0 -
How to Submit XML Site Map with more than 300 Subdomains?
Hi,
Technical SEO | | vaibhav45
I am creating sitemaps for site which has more than 500 Sub domains. Page varies from 20 to 500 in all subdomains & it will keep on adding in coming months. I have seen sites that create separate sitemap.xml for each subdomain which they mention in separate robots.txt file http://windows7.iyogi.com/robots.txt XML site map eg for subdomain: http://windows7.iyogi.com/sitemap.xml.gz , Currently in my website we have only 1 robots.txt file for main domain & sub domains. Please tell me shall i create separate robots.txt & XML site map file for each subdomain or 1 file. Creating separate xml for each sub-domain is not feasible as we have to verify in GWT separately. Is there any automatic way & do i have to ping separately if i add new pages in subdomain. Please advise me.0