What's the best URL Structure if my company is in multiple locations or cities?

[BrianJGomez]

I have read numerous intelligent, well informed responses to this question but have yet to hear a definitive answer from an authority.

Here's the situation.

1. Let's say I have a company who's URL is www.awesomecompany.com who provides one service called 'Awesome Service'
2. This company has 20 franchises in the 20 largest US cities.
3. They want a uniform online presence, meaning they want their design to remain consistent across all 20 domains.

My question is this; what's the best domain or url structure for these 20 sites?

1. Subdomain - dallas.awesomecompany.co
2. Unique URL - www.dallasawesomecompany.com
3. Directory - www.awesomecompany.com/dallas/

Here's my thoughts on this question but I'm really hoping someone b*tch slaps me and tells me I'm wrong:

Of these three potential solutions these are how I would rank them and why:

1. Subdomains

   1. Pros:

      1. Allows me to build an entire site so if my local site grows to 50+ pages, it's still easy to navigate
      2. Allows me to brand root domain and leverage brand trust of root domain (let's say the franchise is starbucks.com for instance)

   2. Cons:

      1. This subdomain is basically a brand new url in google's eyes and any link building will not benefit root domain.

2. Directory

   1. Pros
      1. Fully leverages the root domain branding and fully allows for further branding
      2. If the domain is an authority site, ranking for sub pages will be achieved much quicker
   2. Cons
      1. While this is a great solution if you just want a simple map listing and contact info page for each of your 20 locations, what if each location want's their own "about us" page and their own "Awesome Service" page optimized for their respective City (i.e. Awesome Service in Dallas)? The Navigation and potentially the URL is going to start to get really confusing and cumbersome for the end user. Think about it, which is preferable?:
         1. dallas.awesomcompany.com/awesome-service/
         2. www.awesomecompany.com/dallas/awesome-service (especially when www.awesomecompany.com/awesome-service/ already exists

3. Unique URL

   1. Pros
      1. Potentially quicker rankings achieved than a subdomain if it's an exact match domain name (i.e. dallasawesomeservice.com)
   2. Cons
      1. Does not leverage the www.awesomecompany.com brand
      2. Could look like an imposter
      3. It is literally a brand new domain in Google's eyes so all SEO efforts would start from scratch

Obviously what goes without saying is that all of these domains would need to have unique content on them to avoid duplicate content penalties. I'm very curious to hear what you all have to say.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I think the reason you won't here a definitive answer is because there isn't one and each does have their own pros & cons.

Personally, I always go for country-specific domains where possible or folders where not. Not a fan of sub-domains myself, but I will use them in cases where the other options just won't fit with the job requirements.

However, I think you need to look at your requirements, as you have done, and see which one is going to fit your requirements the closest. Rarely is there a solution that fits all.

Andy

[leadsprofi]

1. I prefer you, to use subdomains.

1.1 Than every subdomains, connect with an local hosting provider.

for example, for a New York, use a nyc hosting provider, with an ip located on new york

1.2 Earn local backlinks, from local directories,events, businesses, another sources etc.

Stay away from "Duplicate Content  or ON-PAGE Factors".

I think, this is the best solution. And try to use only 2-3 characters of each franchis eand not completely name. Because you can place the name of franchise on the title, example: Brandname Dallas.

Hope it works.