Targeting cities and services

[spersily]

I'm having a dilemma about targeting different cities and services. My client has offices in different cities but the services offered are the same.

Let's say for divorce, the current url structure is

website/city1/divorce

website/city2/divorce

website/city3/divorce

6 different locations so that makes 6 different divorce pages. They offer 13 services so there are 7 different pages of each of the 13 services targeting different cities. I hope I said that clearly but I guess you know what I mean.

My problem is the pages are kinda competing with each other since all of them are about the same topic. It also messes up the internal linking since sometimes you link to one city using the anchor text "divorce" and then link to a different city later on using the same keyword.

Any advice on how to target different cities and services better?

I was thinking of subdomains in order to target the different locations without having competing pages but I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

city1.website.com/service

city2.website.com/service

That way each site is stand alone. What do you think? Thanks!

[CaseyKluver]

Assuming the service and keyword is something like "divorce lawyers in city" (disregard my whole reply if I am wrong :)), there should be Google map listings dominating those SERP's. At least in the test cities I just searched. But for any local based service SERP there is most likely the same look.

In that case if your client has offices in those different cities, it would be easier to claim and optimize your Google+ listings for each location rather than have a bunch of spammy looking pages on your site. There is no reason to have 7 different pages on the exact same topic.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Seth,

Provided your client has legitimate physical offices and unique local phone numbers at each of the 6 locations, there is nothing spammy about having a unique page on the site for each office and connecting those up with your Google Places/+ profiles.

There is no reason to put these on subdomains. This structure is fine:

www.lawyers.com/divorce-lawyer-san-francisco

The challenge is to create unique, valuable content for each of those pages. If you take a cookie cutter approach, then that does end up looking spammy, but if care is invested in making the content different on each of the pages, this is an excellent enhancement to your ability to rank well for each city. Let's kick some ideas around.

Keyword+City A

On this page, you've got 400 words of unique text, plus testimonials from 10 local clients in City A

Keyword+City B

On this page, you've got 600 words of unique text, plus 3 videos

Keyword+ City C

You take an FAQ approach to this page, giving great answers to the top 20 question clients who are considering divorce want answers to.

Keyword+ City D

You create an infographic detailing the typical steps in the divorce process, from filing for divorce to being granted divorce. You add text testimonials from 15 clients in city B.

Etc...This is just an off-the-top-of-my-head example of planning the content strategy so that each page is offering something different. You will plan this more carefully. What will be the same on each of these pages is a unique opening sales statement (unique for each page) and the complete NAP (name, address, phone number) for each office. Work with the designer to create a cool way to format the opening statement and NAP so that visitors hitting these landing pages know they've just been invited to call the divorce lawyer in city X, before you get on to the other data on the page, such as detailed copywriting, videos, infographics, etc.

My advice, basically, is to take the most creative possible approach to these client scenarios. Educate the client that the more he invests in these city landing page (in terms of creativity, time and funding) the better his chances of dominating in the SERPs.

Hope this helps!