Use a location page or use homepage?

[Den]

Hello!

When dealing with a local business website that's mainly operating in one city, sure they do some work outside sometimes but that's in smaller towns.

Should I have a location page dedicated to that location?

Right now their homepage is showing up on page 2 for their keyword + location, but it is poorly optimized for those keywords so there's a lot of easy wins there.

If I optimize the homepage for the location keyword, should I skip creating a location page dedicated to the very same location?

Because wouldn't I be cannibalizing on the homepage keywords if I had a location page for the same keyword?

But at the same time I think a page dedicated solely to that location would have a greater shot at doing well in the rankings, but at the same time, creating that page would mean it's a new page Google is going to have to start to rank for meanwhile their homepage is already showing up on page 2 for the keywords...

Sorry if it sounds confusing.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey @Den I would optimize the homepage for the main location + service, if you mainly operate in that one location. You could still create a "location" page, but I would target a different service and/or longer tail keywords.

 

[chrisfinnegan]

Sounds like targeting "city + service" with the home page is best in your situation. Don't make a separate local page for the city for the reasons you've mentioned (plus your home page will have more ranking power).

Instead create local landing pages to target regions (if applicable) or suburbs within in the city. You can use internal linking from the local landing pages back to the home page for "city + service" keywords.

Hope that helps