Keyword + Location domains

[gamnaking1]

Hi All,

Just wanted to get everyones opinions on this, I see it more and more now where businesses own multiple domains for [keyword] + [location], they have multiple domains for different locations and setup individual sites on them.

I see these types of domains rank very easily for medium competition keywords, as long as the on page is good and there are a handful of back links, they rank.

just to clarify, for example - iphonerepairmanchester.co.uk (purely an example not sure how this site ranks!!)

What are Googles views on this? I've always insisted its better to build a strong brand with the "real" business rather than creating extra websites named by keywords. But I've recently had a client want to pursue this and it seems it currently works, but is there a danger down the line Google will penalise it?

The short term traffic increase is undeniable but like anything in the world of Google at the moment, I'd rather persuade clients not to go this route if it will protect future interests.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

The practice itself is not considered ethical, as Matt Cutts has talked about this and their view is, why are you registering multiple sites just to get a boost in the SERPs? If found out, I would expect they would take a dim view of it. They said that all of this information should be kept on a single site.

If I were to want to achieve something like this, I would handle it either though a subdomain or within the current site structure.

-Andy

[Vizergy]

Agreed.  IMO the domain should be the Brand.  Sub-domains or directories for different locations makes perfect sense and flows well just be careful with duplicate content.  Don't just copy all of your content over and change the city or state.

[gamnaking1]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the response, glad that its agreed that building the brand on its own domain is the way to go! This is how I've always worked, it just gets difficult when a client can see a competitor getting success using a certain method - and having to explain that long term its not wise to follow suit.

It seems to be happening more and more for local terms, hoping a future update can perhaps control this more!

[CSawatzky]

Also, what we do on our site is that we have a page for location we're located under our main domain. We've seen great results this way. Frankly, I don't want to ever try to game the system or piss off Google. Location is a huge things these days. Often, you can type in a broad root word and still get local results.

IMO, best not to mess your standing up for a slight chance of increased results. My rec is to have a page for each of your locations under your domain, create quality content for each of those pages, let Google index those locations naturally, get great reviews on your products/services on your G+/Yelp/etc. page, and you'll start to see favorable results.

[CleverPhD]

Just to add to the chatter.  I agree, do not go out and buy a bunch of local URLs in this case.  I run several large sites that we have to focus on local search for them.  I do not use the subdomain, but use a local folder/file system such as

www.domain.com/$service-I-offer/$st-$city

You can do other variants of this, but you get the idea.  I do not use subdomains as over time when I build links, etc for my city pages that also builds up the authority of my site.  This has worked very well for me across multiple sites that focus on different services/areas.

I would present this to the client that you are building for the long term.  All of those separate domains are now dividing up the authority between them, vs building the authority for a central brand.  It is divided attention and in business, that is not good on multiple levels.  My other point is that, do you know in fact that all these competitors are ranking due specifically to the local domains?  That is an assumption, and may be false.  You can present to the client all the history around EMD and if you do a deep dive on those other sites, it may be they have a better on page optimization, link profile, load time, etc etc.  Do some homework and you will probably come back with at least 5 things that you need to do for your clients to improve ranking and none of them will be to go out and buy local domains.

Cheers!