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Thanks for the thoughful response. I totally understand you can't give step by step - but that does spark some ideas, thanks!

Hi everyone - I'm trying to benchmark an entire industry. Given that Google seems to adjust what ranking signals should be counted more heavily based on the industry/query - I'd like to be able to benchmark a specific industry.

As a silly example - let's say I want to know what ranking signals would most effect coffee shops, real estate agents, or manufacturers. Has anyone here ever found an efficient way to analyze:

1. Who the top 10 are for 5-10 keywords, in that industry

2. What they have in common (e.g. meta info, content length, ssl certs, etc.)

3. What were the differences in the higher ranking ones (domain name registration age, content quality, etc.)

It seems like there has to be a way to do this given that Moz, SEM Rush, and others release yearly reports that detail which ranking signals seem to be most important.

I'd just like to be able to know what the top ranking signals are for a specific industry, based off of who is ranking really well in that industry already.

Thanks!

Hey gremmy! Congrats on the success of your practice, that's awesome

I'm working through the same question, but for a client who "services" (not operates offices in) 5-10 different cities in the same state. I'm far more familiar with national SEO (blogs, or large company websites) where this doesn't come up, but I'll take a stab and the community can correct me if I'm wrong

You have 2 main options (not saying they're both good):

1- You can add an area to your homepage that says "areas we service", and simply list office name, city, address, and a photo of that location (along with a CTA if you like, to schedule an appt, etc.)

2- Create a specific location page for each office, as you're hoping.

I'd recommend #2, but I'd attack it a bit differently than you are. I would do the following:

1. Create a "parent page", called "Locations" . This page should have a simple statement like "We current serve Denver clients in the following cities:" then include a sort of bullet list of all cities. For now, that would be two cities, and each name would link to their corresponding "child page" . The URL structure would look like --

effectivetherapysolutions.com/locations/denver/   , etc.

2. On each location page, present all location relevant info as you're proposing (photos, address, phone number, a unique content form if applicable, etc.). Then do the best you can to describe your services and practice in a unique way. So for the parts that "need" to be similiar (e.g. who you are, what you do, your unique value to customers, etc.) the way I approach this is by trying to forget what I've written on the homepage (for example), and just describing the business anew.

I find it's helpful if you decide what "buckets" (H3 headings for example) you want included on each location. For example, decide you want:

-What you do

-Why you're the best / the unique value you'll add to customers

-Your experience/testimonials

-CTA

If each one of those were an H3 heading, with a paragraph (or a few sentences) of info, do your best to say it in a different way. If there's anything unique to the city and how it corresponds with your practice, add that information as well.

3. As you add  more locations, add them to the parent page (yourdomain.com/locations/) and create their corresponding location pages as child pages.

4. At the bottom of each child page, add a sentence like "Click here to view our other locations in [State Name]" and link back to the parent page. That will help Google crawl each page, and see that it's a child, stemming from one Locations page.

In my humble experience (from doing this, and looking at real world examples) you won't experience any harmful effects of overlapping. I've seen barber shops, realtors, etc. rank in the top 3 spots across the board from city to city on their locations page, with content only slightly re-worded.

I think the bigger thing is - don't intentionally create crappy, spun content to thoughtlessly rank in areas you don't service. But I personally would not worry if I were you, about harming yourself because of some overlapping info. If you get to 10 locations, how  many different ways can you describe what you do without using 70% the same words?

So, differentiate where you can - esp. with local office info and information about the city, and where it overlaps (the content you want on each location page to help sell the viewer on your services) just try and say it in a different, but relevant way.

The Moz community can correct me if I've said anything wrong, but from my experience this is how I'd attack it. Hope that helps

PS- if you haven't read it, here's a great article that might help https://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide

Hey gremmy! Congrats on the success of your practice, that's awesome

I'm working through the same question, but for a client who "services" (not operates offices in) 5-10 different cities in the same state. I'm far more familiar with national SEO (blogs, or large company websites) where this doesn't come up, but I'll take a stab and the community can correct me if I'm wrong

You have 2 main options (not saying they're both good):

1- You can add an area to your homepage that says "areas we service", and simply list office name, city, address, and a photo of that location (along with a CTA if you like, to schedule an appt, etc.)

2- Create a specific location page for each office, as you're hoping.

I'd recommend #2, but I'd attack it a bit differently than you are. I would do the following:

1. Create a "parent page", called "Locations" . This page should have a simple statement like "We current serve Denver clients in the following cities:" then include a sort of bullet list of all cities. For now, that would be two cities, and each name would link to their corresponding "child page" . The URL structure would look like --

effectivetherapysolutions.com/locations/denver/   , etc.

2. On each location page, present all location relevant info as you're proposing (photos, address, phone number, a unique content form if applicable, etc.). Then do the best you can to describe your services and practice in a unique way. So for the parts that "need" to be similiar (e.g. who you are, what you do, your unique value to customers, etc.) the way I approach this is by trying to forget what I've written on the homepage (for example), and just describing the business anew.

I find it's helpful if you decide what "buckets" (H3 headings for example) you want included on each location. For example, decide you want:

-What you do

-Why you're the best / the unique value you'll add to customers

-Your experience/testimonials

-CTA

If each one of those were an H3 heading, with a paragraph (or a few sentences) of info, do your best to say it in a different way. If there's anything unique to the city and how it corresponds with your practice, add that information as well.

3. As you add  more locations, add them to the parent page (yourdomain.com/locations/) and create their corresponding location pages as child pages.

4. At the bottom of each child page, add a sentence like "Click here to view our other locations in [State Name]" and link back to the parent page. That will help Google crawl each page, and see that it's a child, stemming from one Locations page.

In my humble experience (from doing this, and looking at real world examples) you won't experience any harmful effects of overlapping. I've seen barber shops, realtors, etc. rank in the top 3 spots across the board from city to city on their locations page, with content only slightly re-worded.

I think the bigger thing is - don't intentionally create crappy, spun content to thoughtlessly rank in areas you don't service. But I personally would not worry if I were you, about harming yourself because of some overlapping info. If you get to 10 locations, how  many different ways can you describe what you do without using 70% the same words?

So, differentiate where you can - esp. with local office info and information about the city, and where it overlaps (the content you want on each location page to help sell the viewer on your services) just try and say it in a different, but relevant way.

The Moz community can correct me if I've said anything wrong, but from my experience this is how I'd attack it. Hope that helps

PS- if you haven't read it, here's a great article that might help https://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide