Multiple Locations w/ Multiple Services

[regl8r]

Just curious on how each of you would approach a business with multiple locations targeting multiple services/keywords.

Multiple locations is easy just create page for each location and build links to those pages but what if you are trying to rank for multiple terms in that location. Do you...

a) Put all the content on the location page and try to rank that page for everything

abclaw.com/dallas-tx/

b) Limited content on location page and an inner page for each service/keyword

abclaw.com/dallas-tx/dui-attorney/
abclaw.com/dallas-tx/personal-injury-attorney/
abclaw.com/dallas-tx/divorce-attorney/

 

[CodyBaird]

B will provide more organic traffic provided that the content on those pages needs to be different than the other locations.

Abclaw.com/dallas-tx/personal-injuy

Shouldn't be dupe content of

abclaw.com/houston-tx/personal-injuy

Or you will invoke panda penalties for duplicate content. Each page must be unique (at least 500 words) different than the Dallas personal injury page.

Greg Gifford from autorevo did an awesome slideshare for multi locations but I can't find it. Maybe another pro can help with the link.





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[regl8r]

B will provide more organic traffic provided that the content on those pages needs to be different than the other locations.

Abclaw.com/dallas-tx/personal-injuy

Shouldn't be dupe content of

abclaw.com/houston-tx/personal-injuy

Or you will invoke panda penalties for duplicate content. Each page must be unique (at least 500 words) different than the Dallas personal injury page.

Greg Gifford from autorevo did an awesome slideshare for multi locations but I can't find it. Maybe another pro can help with the link.

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Is this theory or have you tested both ways? I have my thoughts but would like to see if anyone else has experience.

 

[CodyBaird]

Again, I would recommend reaching out to Greg as he may have large sample. I can't offer the volume of data to validate anything that wouldn't come under fire. Love to hear your thoughts.

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[Eric Rohrback]

I agree... option B seems better from both a content/user point of view. Each location should be unique in their own way, so you want to highlight that. Sure the services are the same, but the people in the office are different, the personality of the town is different, so you want to make it appeal & relate to each market. Greg Gifford wrote a great article on SEL a while back about this - Local Content Silos: The Secret To Local Search Success

Definitely check that out.

 

[CodyBaird]

Thanks Eric for pulling that Gifford reference. Couldn't find it for the life of me.

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[regl8r]

Again, I would recommend reaching out to Greg as he may have large sample. I can't offer the volume of data to validate anything that wouldn't come under fire. Love to hear your thoughts.

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Here are my thoughts. If you are creating citations and building other links it will likely be towards the /city-st/ and for that reason I like to use this page for my main keyword and then make a decision on whether or not to silo based on the competition and niche.

For the example I used (law in a major metro), you probably won't get on page 1 for any of your silo pages unless you have a very strong site. Even though your inner pages are not your main keyword, it is a main keyword for others making them tough to beat out along with your other directory sites. So while in theory you get more traffic by doing a silo, you really don't bc they end up not making it to page one of SERPS for many of those inner pages. So for a competitive niche/keywords I prefer to avoid the silo and make the /city-st/ page as juicy as possible; all my links and content go there. Instead of inner linking to a city specific page about another keyword, link to to a general page with more information on that secondary keyword.

Now if the competition is not as tough, using the /city-st/ page for main keyword but thinner content and silo the other keywords because it will be able to rank.

There is also something to be said about the page you connect to your Google Business listing. In my mind there is a definite correlation that organic rankings push your listing up closer to the 3 pack. If the page ranking organically is not the page linked to in the listing, does it have the same effect?

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Everyone has different ways of reaching the same goal - there's no one solution to anything. I tried the method of cramming as much info into the /city/ page as possible but it flopped many times for me. The reason being that it had A LOTof info, but in an effort to not bog it down too much with text each section was shortened.

On the flipside I created a /city/ page that referenced the sub topics and linked to deeper pages which went into more detail about those services. That approach got me to page 1 faster, and for a variety of terms because I could optimize each page differently (per Greg's approach).

I'd recommend trying both strategies and really measuring the results. You should optimize the /city/ page for the primary keyword in the market, then go after long tailed service/product related keywords with the inner pages. I found it a lot easier to replicate success with that method, but I guess it also depends on the vertical/city you're in so be prepared to test a few strategies - If one fails you should be ready to jump into the next.

 

[regl8r]

Definitely different ways to skin a cat Eric. I have seen the same thing when aggressively targeting multiple keywords with one page, headings and tagging pics with secondary keywords, etc = poor rankings. Seems like when you give G information overload on what to rank it ranks nothing or at least is inconsistent (one page will rank and the other doesn't). Haven't seen too much content be detrimental as long as it is relevant and not stuffed. 500 words on each of the services it provides on that page is overkill, 3000 words on 1 page is not user friendly.