Local Service Pages vs Blog Post

[jross]

Hi All, looking for your collective expertise on some advice I received that just doesn't sound right to me.

I asked our developer about layout out our site in a way to better capture local searches with something like sitename.com/location/service1 and sitename.com/location/service2, etc.

Presently our site is laid out like sitename.com/service

Here's the response from our developer that doesn't sound right to me. "In terms of SEO and best practices, if your goal is to rank for certain services in specific areas, the better approach would be writing these pages as blog posts instead of core coverage pages. The approach of making location pages just to rank doesn't work as well as having actual dedicated pages for physical office locations (with NAP info and specific keywords) or SEO-optimized blog posts dedicated to very specific subjects. In fact, it can complicate the structure of the sitemap and URL structure, so it's important to keep that in mind."

Is this true? And as for complicating the sitemap, is this possible?

My gut is telling me that location/service is the better approach to a keyword jammed blog post on the same topic but wanted to check with this fine crowd! Thank you!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Service/location pages all the way. In fact, according to this case study, the content on the service/city pages wasn't even that unique and the pages still performed well - Can Service Area Pages With Duplicate or Similar Content Increase Traffic? - Sterling Sky Inc

You might find this article useful as well - Should a Small Business Have a Blog in 2021? - Sterling Sky Inc

 

[Joey Abna]

Pages should be evergreen and Blog Posts are more timely. Go with pages.

 

[Conor Treacy]

Content and structure is the main part. Google doesn't differentiate between a blog post or a page, they're the same thing. The structure will be what's important.

You could use a Custom Post Type (CPT) and then build out the layout, then show the pages based on that, or you can add a post to a category, prevent that category from showing in the Blog area of your site, and link to each post individually (each post is a location). It just depends on how you've structured things. You can also then designate the new CPT as its own sitemap for submission if you wanted.

Usually, people stick with Pages as being the main content of the site, and Posts being articles etc - but at the end of the day, Google doesn't see a difference, just be sure your markup is presenting correctly.

 

[jross]

Thanks for all the considered responses, folks! Much appreciated!