Targeting different cities for my service - Geo landing pages
-
I am breaking my head trying to figure out the best way around this... so we have an hvac company located in nyc. We want to also target all the different boroughs.
We have a bunch of different major keywords
hvac repair + location
hvac service + location
along with keywords such as air conditioning repair + location, heating service + location , and so on.....
Should each borough + keyword have its own page? Or should we just have one page called brooklyn and in that page target all the different keywords like hvac, air conditining, and heating ?
Also does it matter how we have it laid out? Domaim/hvac-repair-brooklyn or should I add domain/service-area/hvac. .....
Some of my competitors have the same content written on each borough page just moved around a little with different city names, how are they ranking so well? Isn't that duplicate?
Would love to hear from some people with success in this local area.
Thanks!
-
For the sake of convenience, I prefer this:
/service-area/dallas-tx
Hope that helps!
-
My thought was to have a master service area page that would be at mydomain.com/service-area. That page would have a service area map or the like that would link to the service areas themselves, which would be located at /service-area/texas/dallas or /service-area/dallas-tx, and which of the two is preferable is the essence of my question. Thank you!
-
Hey Chad!
Getting to discuss these topics with the community is the highlight of my work day, every day!
In your examples, above, what is this meant to represent:
service-area
Are you saying the domains would actually say 'service-area' in them or is that filler text for something you are meaning to convey? Please clarify. Thanks!
-
Miriam, as a follow-up, do your recommendations for city pages change if a company serves a large number number of cities across several states? In particular, which of the following link structures would you recommend:
- mydomain.com/service-area/texas/dallas and mydomain.com/service-area/louisiana/shreveport
- mydomain.com/service-area/dallas-tx and mydomain.com/service-area/shreveport-la
Seriously, Miriam, this is all so helpful. Thank you for spending your time this way!
-
Hello all, I have very recently taken on a local business to manage and quite new to all of this. Your posts on the subject of multi-location have been incredibly useful and your original blogpost on Local landing pages Miriam is in my reading list and I am sure will be revisited regularly.
I have another question on this obviously complex subject, what to do about tracking your keywords in MOZ Pro? I have subscribed and set up my main keywords and linked each to the 40 different service locations for our business, which looks like its a similar set up to Chads, however this now gives me 400 keywords to track, which seems way too much and unmanageable. Can you give me some advice on how to make this much more effective?
Many thanks,
Sarah
-
Sure thing, Chad!
-
Thank you, Miriam!
-
Hi Chad!
I see. If you have just one physical location, I recommend the following structure:
-
Include your city of location on your main pages (home, about, contact and the landing page for that city).
-
Create a unique landing page for each service city. Be sure the content is of very high quality on these pages.
-
Create a set of services pages, describing each of your company's services. Optimize these for the service keywords.
#3 has some grey area. If it is most important for you to rank for your city of location, then include that city in the optimization of these pages. If the service cities are of equal importance to the city of location, then do not optimize these for the cities - just optimize them for the services.
And, of course, be sure you are not duplicating content on any page
-
-
Thanks for getting back with me so quickly! I'm asking about a business that has only one physical location, but a broad service area. Should site pages be primarily optimized for the physical location or should I leave city names out of most page titles if I'd like to rank beyond the city of my physical location. Given that I have only one physical location, but a broad service area, which option is better (or is there a third):
Option #1: Optimize Most Pages for Physical Location
- Homepage: "Company Name | HVAC | New York City"
- About Page: "About Company Name | New York City"
- Service Page 1: "Service 1 | Company Name | New York City"
- Service Page 2: "Service 2 | Company Name | New York City"
- Service City Page 1: "New York City | Company Name"
- Service City Page 2: "Albany, NY | Company Name"
- Service City Page 3: "Philadelphia, PA | Company Name"
Option #2: Optimize Only City Pages for Physical Locations
- Homepage: "Company Name | HVAC"
- About Page: "About Company Name"
- Service Page 1: "Service 1 | Company Name"
- Service Page 2: "Service 2 | Company Name"
- Service City Page 1: "New York City | Company Name"
- Service City Page 2: "Albany, NY | Company Name"
- Service City Page 3: "Philadelphia, PA | Company Name"
-
Hi Chad,
Are you asking about a multi-location business? I believe so. If no city is more important than any other, then you would likely want to focus on the brand/keywords on the homepage and focus on the various cities on the city landing pages. If there are more details you'd like to share, feel free!
-
How would you recommend optimizing the site for its physical location? Would the homepage Title, for example, be something like "Company Name | HVAC | New York City" if that's the physical location of the business or would it be better to go with "Company Name | HVAC" as not to nullify the attempts to rank well in Albany, New Brunswick, and other surrounding cities?
-
Hi Brian - Your instinct about this is correct. Spun pages tend to be of very low quality and largely duplicative. Ideally, if you have an important city/service combination, you should be investing the time it takes to create a unique page from scratch about it. If the term is worth it, the time is worth it.
-
Sorry to revive an older post (I'll delete this if necessary), but I had one quick addition/question about this. I'm going to assume that using spinning software to cover the various city/service combos is out of the question, right? That it'd be better to simply not have a page devoted to a specific combination than to have a spun page?
Thanks!
-
Hey Jamie,
Well, in my suggested structure, the city landing pages wouldn't just say 'New York' on them in the titles,(by which I believe you're intending New York City, right?). They would likely include whatever the overall keyword is for the company...which would be HVAC if that is the category this company is in. What I wouldn't do, though, unless you do have the resources to create an enormous number of pages for all individual service/city combos, would be to have NYC+Heater Repair, NYC+Air Conditioner Repair, Brooklyn+Heater Repair, Brooklyn+Air Condition Repair, etc. On a limited budget/with limited resources, I think the structure I've suggested above would be the best way to convey all cities and services without repetition and without the risk of creating thin or duplicative content.
-
Miriam,
When structuring the pages as one for each domain.com/service and another for domain.com/city
would you still show up in the google search if someone was searching for the city and service?
Example new york hvac company
I found that when I used the keyword example new york hvac company in my title, page keyword, content I ranked relatively high. Thoughts as to the differences?
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi Raymond,
If I were building this from scratch, and you only served one city, I would likely recommend:
domain.com/air-conditioning-repair-brooklyn
domain.com/air-conditioning-service-brooklyn
domain.com/hvac-installation-brooklyn
domain.com/hvac-repair-brooklyn
etc.
But, if you are working with more than one city, I would have a set of pages like this:
etc.
And another set of pages like this:
etc.
So, 1 set of pages for the cities and another set for the services. How to structure this sensibly really depends on the business model (single city vs. multi-city). Most service area businesses I've worked with serve multiple cities, so I've found the above works well and keeps things simple.
-
Miriam,
I read the article, great post by the way! So in otherwords you are saying to do the following
domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/hvac-repair
domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/hvac-service
domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/hvac-installations
domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/air-conditioning-repair
domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/air-conditioning-service
domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/air-conditioning-installations
Or should all HVAC related keywords just be one page? Something along the lines of domain.com/service-area/brooklyn/hvac-repair-service-installation
thanks in advance!
-
Hey Raymond!
Jim has linked you to my great big post on the art of local landing pages. Hopefully, you can read it and identify a sensible strategy there.
Now, I'm not a New Yorker, and so this business of boroughs has always been a bit of mystery to me, but one thing that I will add to what you'll read in my post is how clearly hyper-local sensitivity is ramping up in search. My honest preference for structuring local websites is:
-
one page per city
-
one page per service
I totally understand that every local business owner worth his salt wants to rank for every possible combination of service/geo-term. Of course! But the only time I feel this landing page strategy should be undertaken to represent every possible combo is if the business owner has considerable creative or financial resources to devote to make a potentially enormous number of pages of a very high quality. Clearly - your competitors aren't hearing this advice if they're just spinning thin/duplicative content to cover the waterfront.
Now, all this being said, with Google become more and more intelligent about neighborhoods, and the mobile (and desktop) user becoming the new 'centroid', my take on this is that neighborhood (borough?) names are only going to become more important in signifying that a business is physically close to a given user. So, if I were consulting with a small HVAC company without endless funds, I'd probably suggest something like this strategy:
-
one page per city
-
one page per service
-
frequent but gentle mention of boroughs/neighborhoods throughout the website, as appropiate
-
hyperlocal blogging on an ongoing basis that emphasizes these boroughs, if the company or copywriter can swing something authentic and good to write about
I think frequent content of this sort could make phones ring. Hope these are helpful ideas!
-
-
Here's the iconic post on just that area - http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide - from Miram who's on staff here at Moz.com...
And she addresses that too....well worth the click/thru eh!
-
Hi Raymond,
You can create few pages like a/c to service area and then use the keywords for each service area page.
Also, domain/service-area/hvac url structure is good for your business
Kind Regards!
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
-
Is it deceptive to attempt to rank for a city you're located just outside of?
I live in Greenville, SC (who has a large "Greater Greenville" reach). I work for an agency with many clients who are located just outside of the city in smaller towns, sometimes technically in counties other than Greenville. Often, they provide services in the city of Greenville and aim to grow business there, so we'll use "Greenville, SC" throughout site copy, in titles, and in meta descriptions. Are there any negative implications to this? Any chance search engines think these clients are being deceptive? And is it possible these clients are hurting their ranking in their actual location by trying to appear to be a Greenville-based company? Thank you for any thoughts!
Local Website Optimization | | engeniusbrent1 -
On what pages of my site should I put schema.org structured markup for an Aggregate Review of a Concrete Construction Contractors work?
I have a concrete contractor that I do a site for. He has many reviews from Home Advisor. So I created a Structured Data Markup using HTML5\. I put the the AggregateReview near the bottom of the About Us page at [http://www.skv-construction.com/about-us.html](http://www.skv-construction.com/about-us.html). Question 1: Should I also put the AggregateReview on the home page, or on specific project pages. Question 2: How will Google use the data now if the About page is NOT searched or displayed in SERPs. Does Google display this markup when and where they want to? Question 3: Siince this is a Local Business, should I embed the AggregateReview within the LocalSearch tag. I passed the Google test as it is for the Aggregate Review! But I have the review wrapped in the HomeAndConstructionBusiness tag. Here is the code: "http://schema.org/HomeAndConstructionBusiness"> # Quality Workmanship w 50 Yrs Experience "http://schema.org/AggregateRating"> 4.37 stars-based on 54 reviews at ["http://www.homeadvisor.com/rated.SKVConstruction.18028291.html"](<a) target="_blank">Home Advisor "http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> 10005 Fair Lane <spam itemprop="addresslocality" union=""></spam> IL 60180 (847) 364 0161 ["http://www.skv-construction.com/contact-us.html"](<a)>Contact Us Price Range: All Jobs Custom; Call for Quote or Visit Web Site Would appreciate any help. This markup is so vague, I can see why few people are using it. Maybe you should do a Video training or extended training on how to's. Vernon Wanner 815-332-8062
Local Website Optimization | | VernonWanner0 -
How to create sites with powerful individual pages to achieve top results.
How to create sites with powerful individual pages to achieve top results . According to MOZ I need to have powerful individual pages to achieve top results my site has a 0 authority so for this reason I need to focus on powerful pages but how do I know if my pages are powerful or not.
Local Website Optimization | | A.V.S0 -
A question about similar services a multiple locations
Moz Friends, I hope you can help with this question. My company has 25 locations, and growing. Our rankings are strong in the Serps and Local Maps. With each location, we create a new page (with a unique URL) for that specific location (ex: Thriveworks.com/knoxville-counseling). We then write about 15 pages of unique content for that location, each page about one of the services we provide like: Depression Counseling, Couples Therapy, Anger Management, Eating Disorder Treatment, Life Coaching, Child Therapy, and the list goes on and on.... Hence, for each location, we create a pile of URLS like: Thriveworks.com/knoxville-counseling/couples-therapy, ..../knoxville-counseling/depression-therapy, .../knoxville-counseling/anger-management... We do this to rank for medium-long-tail searches like "Knoxville Marriage Therapy." As we grow, this results in us writing lots and lots of original content for each location. Original, but somewhat redundant. We would much rather write one AMAZING article on depression counseling, than 25 'okay' ones for each office we open. So, my question (if you're still reading) is our current approach the right one? Should we continue the grind and for each location create a unique page for each service offered out of that office? Or is there a better way, where we can create One anger management page that would suffice for each of our local offices? Has anyone addressed this topic in an article? I Haven't found one... I look forward to your feedback, and thanks in advance!!
Local Website Optimization | | Thriveworks-Counseling0 -
Sub domain for geo pages
Hello Group! I have been tossing the idea in my head of using sub domains for the geo pages for each of my clients. For example: one of my clients is a lawyer in a very competitive Atlanta market http://bestdefensega.com. Can I set his geo page to woodstock.bestdefensega.com? Is this a viable option? Will I get penalized? Thoughts or suggestions always appreciated! Thanks in Advance
Local Website Optimization | | underdogmike0 -
Omitted Results city-queries for the same brand on different subdomains?
I've noticed on a few occasions where two subdomains share the same brand and are also attempting to rank for phrases specific to one city - the stronger subdomain tends to send the other subdomain to the "omitted search results" for those city specific queries. The subdomains do tend to have some duplicate content that they share but if the two pages on the different subdomains are unique for the search phrase in question wouldn't Google choose to surface both results? Or is this a question of domain diversity in the SERPs where the 2 results would just be too similar since they share the same root domain and have topically similar content? I've seen cases where they can share the first page of results but more often than not it seems that one is sent to the "omitted results". Any thoughts on strategy in this situation? The companies being described end up wanting to rank for the same city because they both serve a portion of the city in case anyone is wondering.
Local Website Optimization | | GSO0 -
Local Area SEO - Directions Page and Multiple Use of Direction pages
Hello, We are looking to focus on multiple local areas and it has been suggested one way to mention lots of different locations on pages without doing lists or using grey SEO practices is to create directions pages. We are trying this with a client who has 2 business at the same address. The layout is:- Introduction - 2-3 sentences Directions by Car Park Parking info Directions by Public Transports Closing - 3-4 sentences - using clients keywords The hope is the having locations/areas and the clients keywords on the same page will capture some of the local areas with the clients keywords. I have some questions:- 1. If we use the same directions text and just change the opening and closing paragraphs on the different website will this be enough to not have a duplicate content issue. 2. Are the directions pages the best way to capture keywords and local area/locations on the same page. 3. Is there anything I am missing or could do instead? Looking forward to everyone's input....
Local Website Optimization | | JohnW-UK0 -
Feedback on different SEO Tools
Can anyone give me their opinion on these different tools? 1. MOZ vs. AHREF (I'm a happy MOZ subscriber, but I would like feedback) (or any other tool you'd recommend) 2. WhiteSpark vs. BrightLocal (or any other tool you recommend) 3. Optimizely vs. Visual Website Optimizer (or any other tool you recommend) 4. Hootsuite vs. ??? (can't think of another one) (or any other tool you recommend) 5. Weebly vs. Wordpress (to build websites) Lastly, please feel free to recommend any other tools you find are helpful for either SEO, Local SEO, Social management. Thanks.
Local Website Optimization | | mrodriguez14400