URL Structure and Keyword Focus for location page

[Smart_Start]

Our company has around 1,700 locations across the country. These are contract shops mind you but still locations in which we will be placing pages for on our website. I have been browsing through all of the Local SEO blogs and trying to define the strategy for these. Here are a couple of outstanding questions I still have:

1. What should the URL structure of the page be for these locations? Keep in mind that there are some cities that have multiple locations in them so I can just do "/city/brand-keyword." I am thinking it should be "www.url.com/state/city/location-name"where the location name would for example "TXBrandName."

2. How should I structure the keyword focus for these pages? I am thinking that these pages will probably rank for some variations and should definitely include the city name although the search volume is very low. Currently I am thinking that they would be "keyword city – brand name."

3. How do we handle the shops that are contract and have a primary business already listed? We plan on listing them on GMB using "located inside of {business name}" on those that are contract shops. We originally considered using a suite# but one of the articles in Moz recommended not doing that. I just know that places like "Starbucks" and "Banfield" seem to use the "located inside of" without any issues.

Any input would be greatly appreciated as we about to set all these up and I want to make sure we are setup for success as much as possible.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi John,

Good questions! I am not 100% certain I understand what you mean by 'contract shops'. Do these businesses:

1. Belong to you?

2. Feature street-level signage with your company name on them?

3. Meet face-to-face with customers at the 1700 locations?

Or, are you describing a different arrangement? Please, provide as much detail as possible. Thanks!

[Smart_Start]

Miriam,

1. These are shops that perform our services using our equipment but are located inside of another business, similar to what happens with Starbucks in a Target. This is not a "we proudly brew" situation, but our actual interaction point with our customers.

2. Yes.

3. Yes.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi John,

So, what you are talking about is called Containment Information. Google says:

• Containment information indicating that your business is located inside another business (whether or not the businesses are part of the same organization).
  • Not acceptable: "Chase ATM (in Duane Reade)", "Apple Store at Stanford Shopping Center", "Benefit Brow Bar - Bloomingdales", "Sam’s Club Tire & Battery (part of Sam’s Club)", "Geek Squad (inside Best Buy)"
  • Acceptable: "Chase ATM", "Apple Store", "Benefit Brow Bar", "Sam’s Club Tire & Battery", "Geek Squad"

See the full guidelines here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

Regarding your URLs, I would go with

domain.com/city-street

Regarding keywords, this is tough because you are talking about so many locations. Typical advice looks like this

...but only if you have the resources to build a good, high quality page for each of the 1700 locations. If you do, I'd focus on service + city + regional terms and synonyms on the pages.

I might suggest, given the size of this client, that you hire a good Local SEO to consult with you, to whom you can show the actual business in confidence. The goal would be to have them confirm GMB eligibility, actually looking at your client. There can be nuances to that our community might miss, not looking at the actual business model. Investment in an hour or two of consulting with a top notch Local SEO would seem a wise investment to me, given the very big scope of the project. We have a list of trusted Local SEOs here: https://moz.com/learn/local/trusted-providers

Hope this helps!