Website Structure - Local Service Area Business

[usingh2212]

Wanted feedback for website structure for local service area business with multiple service and location pages. (I am using generic links here, not actual urls)

Currently I have set up looks like this>
https://fencestaining.com/fence-staining-Houston-tx/
https://fencestaining.com/fence-staining-cypress-tx/

Some other examples I have seen
https://www.powerwashing.com/pressure-washing-near-me/Jersey Village TX
https://powerwashing.com/dripping-springs-tx-pressure-washing/

Is this structure ok or should i use something like this:
www.pressurewashing.com/pressure-washing/service-areas/houston-tx

And does it makes a big difference with Breadcrumbs.

 

[fisicx]

What's your marketing strategy? Do you want people to land on the site and navigate to the location pages? Or do you want them to land on the location pages? What channels are you using to get them on the site?

The URL is almost irrelevant. What matters is the page titles, content and internal navigation.

Done properly you would have categories for services and location and supporting pages and posts for each. This would give you multiple pathways to the content.

Breadcrumbs can be useful or a hindrance depending on your marketing strategy and how people navigate the site. I tend to leave them off the site until I have more data on how people use the site.

Apologies for being a bit waffly but your marketing strategy is key to everything: site structure, navigation and content.

For example: if SEO is you main focus you would build the site to respond to keyword searches. If you are using PPC then your focus is on highly targeted landing pages. If you are using social media then the focus changes again. Or you could be using radio ads or email or posters in which case you change the homepage to meet the needs of these visitors. Define your marketing plan and then build the site.

 

[keyserholiday]

URL is extremely important.
Stick with this URL structure:
Currently I have set up looks like this>
https://fencestaining.com/fence-staining-Houston-tx/
https://fencestaining.com/fence-staining-cypress-tx/

These URL structures are too long and probably won't rank as well on Google:
https://www.powerwashing.com/pressure-washing-near-me/Jersey Village TX
www.pressurewashing.com/pressure-washing/service-areas/houston-tx

The more / you have, the more Google will have issues with the URL. Joy Hawkins had a website where they removed /practice-areas/ and saw immediate gains.

 

[usingh2212]

URL is extremely important.
Stick with this URL structure:
Currently I have set up looks like this>
https://fencestaining.com/fence-staining-Houston-tx/
https://fencestaining.com/fence-staining-cypress-tx/

These URL structures are too long and probably won't rank as well on Google:
https://www.powerwashing.com/pressure-washing-near-me/Jersey Village TX
www.pressurewashing.com/pressure-washing/service-areas/houston-tx

The more / you have, the more Google will have issues with the URL. Joy Hawkins had a website where they removed /practice-areas/ and saw immediate gains.

Follow up, I am looking for rank for organic results and What is the role of Breadcrumbs. I have noticed that some big Lead generation website (thumbtack, angi) use bradcrumb but local small businesses around me do not. Reason I am asking is that my website is new and i am trying to compete with very old website for same keywords and any small advantage counts at this moment.

Also, I am doing my own SEO and not an agency so asking more questions to understand.

 

[fisicx]

URL is extremely important.

It depends. EMD uesd to be important until Google caught on and then it wasn't. Categorization can be important but it can also hinder. In general just use a logical structure. The immediate gains Joy saw may have been because the interstitial page wasn't ranking, removing this from the URL provided a direct path.
Also worth noting that category pages (eg practice areas) can be very poweful and rank well on their own so the URL should include the category. But if you have poor category pages then don't point Google towards them.

I have noticed that some big Lead generation website (thumbtack, angi) use bradcrumb but local small businesses around me do not.

Breadcrumbs can have different structures. They can show the path the visitor has taken to that page or the page hierarchy. As I said before it all depends on your marketing plan. If they are landing directly on the page then maybe a hierarchy breadcrumb. If they are landing on the homepage then use path breadcrumbs.

Or better still, just don't use them at all. Focus on the important things which are your services and locations you service.

 

[fisicx]

These URL structures are too long and probably won't rank as well on Google:

But John Muller said:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/does-url-length-affect-seo/425230/

What does matter is the content of the pages in the URL structure.

If you have homepage > category > topic each component should add value. If your category page is just a signpost to the topic it doesn't add value. This means you really just need homepage > topic

But if you put some effort into you category pages Google will reward you as they can be a keyword rich page with lots on inbound and outbound links (which Google likes).

So to go back on the the comment that:

URL is extremely important.

The answer is: it depends. It mainly depends on the content and structure of your site.