One Website, Multiple Locations, One Blog?

[McFaddenGavender]

There's definitely not going to be a "right" answer to this question, but I think it can lead to a great discussion. We are building a website for a client who has two locations, we are going to use a URL structure similar to this:

• www.Brand.com (this would be a landing page where users would select a location)
• www.Brand.com/Atlanta
• www.Brand.com/Boston

However, we still want to focus on local SEO - so our deeper URL structure will be:

• www.Brand.com/Atlanta/Auto-Accident-Lawyer
• www.Brand.com/Atlanta/Motorcycle-Accident-Lawyer
• www.Brand.com/Boston/Auto-Accident-Lawyer
• www.Brand.com/Boston/Motorcycle-Accident-Lawyer

The content on those pages will be unique and target local keywords. Each "version" of the website will have a navigation specific to that location. For example, once a user clicks into the Boston website, all of the navigation items will pertain to Boston.

However, we run into an issue with the blog. Both locations will be using the same blog content, which ends up looking something like this:

• www.Brand.com/Atlanta/Blog/Blog-Article
• www.Brand.com/Boston/Blog/Blog-Article

This obviously creates duplicate content. We could do something such as this:

www.Brand.com/Blog/Blog-Article

However, as noted above, each local version of the website has a separate navigation (this keeps a user in Boston on the Boston version of the website). So have a centralized blog is far from ideal unless navigations for both locations are included - which would allow users to return back to their local website.

From my understanding, duplicate content doesn't necessarily "hurt" your SERPs, it simply keeps one of the duplicated pages from ranking.

So the question comes down to this, is duplicate content a big enough issue to restructure a website to use a centralized blog?

[irapasternack]

So, do you have any content, other than the one homepage, that is the same for both offices?   I would think there will be a need for some such content - maybe a general "About The Firm" page, or other details that are going to be the same for both offices, and would also create duplicate issues beyond just the blog.

If so, is it too late for you to consider a single navigation, with a top level page for both Boston and Atlanta, and then subpages for each that can be optimized for your local terms?

Regarding duplicate content, you are correct that Google has stated that there isn't a penalty, you just will only get the version of a page that is most appropriate.   So if someone is searching from Atlanta, they will most likely get the Atlanta version of the blog.

Will you have some blog posts that only are relevant (or are most relevant) for one location or the other?  If so, duplicating a portion of pages is probably safer than 100% duplication.