Unique URLs for each local office 301 to parent site

[marlattts]

I have a dentist who has multiple locations and a unique domain for each location.

• www.DentalCareofLacey.com
• www.DentalCareofSumner.com
• www.DentalCareofVashon.com

The current plan is to setup 301s to redirect to the parent site (www.atlasdentistry.com/locations/lacey).

Would there be any negative impact if we continue to purchase a unique domain for each branch office and just set it as a 301 to the parent site? Does having too many 301 redirects look too spammy to Google?

[webmethod]

Hi Rich,

I can't imagine that Google would penalise your parent site because branch site domains 301 to it in this way. I gather from Matt Cutts that a significantly long chain of 301s (301->301->301->301 etc) might be frowned upon but that's not what you're proposing.

I'm making an assumption that your goal is to publicise the "friendly" .com domains on business cards / advertising so as users don't have to type in a long URL. You will most likely get links, but the 301 will pass on at least some of the value to the parent site. The only thing to consider perhaps is whether you plan to have other pages on the friendly domains which also need to 301, (e.g. www.DentalCareofLacey.com/contact)) in which case there will be an overhead in maintaining these.

You'll also want the parent site landing pages to be SEO optimised for their respective regional areas, but as you've already got the region in the URL I think you're probably on top of this.

George

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

Hi Rich,

That should be fine.  I agree with what George wrote.  I also think that putting all the locations onto a single site that then has location sections/pages is a good idea.  It's easier to build the authority of one site than try to build three sites up.

Kurt Steinbrueck

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Rich, you've received a couple of good responses. Did they help answer your question? Please give us an update, thanks!

Christy