Should I Add Location to ALL of My Client's URLs?

[pdrama231]

Hi Mozzers,

My first Moz post! Yay! I'm excited to join the squad

My client is a full service entertainment company serving the Washington DC Metro area (DC, MD & VA) and offers a host of services for those wishing to throw events/parties. Think DJs for weddings, cool photo booths, ballroom lighting etc.

I'm wondering what the right URL structure should be. I've noticed that some of our competitors do put DC area keywords in their URLs, but with the moves of SERPs to focus a lot more on quality over keyword density, I'm wondering if we should focus on location based keywords in traditional areas on page (e.g. title tags, headers, metas, content etc) instead of having keywords in the URLs alongside the traditional areas I just mentioned. So, on every product related page should we do something like:

example.com/weddings/planners-washington-dc-md-va
example.com/weddings/djs-washington-dc-md-va
example.com/weddings/ballroom-lighting-washington-dc-md-va

OR

example.com/weddings/planners
example.com/weddings/djs
example.com/weddings/ballroom-lighting

In both cases, we'd put the necessary location based keywords in the proper places on-page. If we follow the location-in-URL tactic, we'd use DC area terms in all subsequent product page URLs as well. Essentially, every page outside of the home page would have a location in it.

Thoughts?

Thank you!!

[Ria_]

I'd avoid adding the location in the URL if you only work with those services for a single location. It looks messy to the user, and can look spammy to Google. And it would save you from having to change the URL and set up redirects, if you need to remove the location keywords from the URL at a later date in order to please the Big G. Optimising for location within the content, title and meta can be easily tweaked with time. Tweaking URLs can be a lot messier.

[pdrama231]

Thank you, Ria. That's very helpful.

Im curious, when the business expands to different cities in the coming months (for example, Miami and Chicago are being considered, not yet finalized), then in that case I would assume we need to have location in the URL path for the sake of designation and differentiation. This may be a sub folder in and of itself though. Thoughts?

[Ria_]

For a handful of different locations, it's quite common to structure them as different subdirectories, as you said. site.com/weddings/miami/planners or /miami/weddings/planners - whichever makes the most sense for your customer base and how you're targeting the content.

Just ensure that these are not considered doorway pages or appear to be too templated. Make each landing page for each location unique, and tailored specifically to your customers in each location. If you have nothing unique to say, then you don't need separate pages. It would be best to target the different locations on the same landing pages. But you being the expert in the industry, I can imagine it'll be easy enough to cater toward each audience specifically. Especially when you're not dealing with tens if not hundreds or thousands of different towns.

If you are certain on expanding to different cities soon, then it might be best to begin the URL structuring with /washington-dc/ subdirectory somewhere, so you don't have to change this later.

[pdrama231]

Excellent advice Ria. I'll likely give that advice to the client.

Another question that brewed from this: how then should main navigation be handled as we expand? obviously we can't have D.C. centric keywords in the main navigation as the business expands. I think we could create unique content and landing pages for each individual service and location, but how would that be incorporate into the overall user flow and URL structure?

Would it be more of a sitemap play? If someone goes to www.example.com, should they be given an option to choose their location then be routed to that specific city's subdomain and yhenbrowse from there?

I guess my main question is, how exactly should we structure the site navigation for users from multiple cities to both please UX and the big G?

Thank you!

[Ria_]

(I had posted my response, but Moz didn't fancy saving it for some reason and it's just gone. So I'll try and remember what I typed and repost it...)

I wouldn't dilute the site authority by using subdomains for your locations.

As a user, I would recommend your main site navigation lists the different event types (weddings, parties, corporate, etc) and branch your locations from there.

e.g.

• Weddings - /weddings/ (Weddings)

• Miami - /weddings/miami/ (Weddings in Miami)

• Planners - /weddings/miami/planners/ (Wedding Planners in Miami)

• DJs - /weddings/miami/djs/ (Wedding DJs in Miami)

• Ballroom Lighting - /weddings/miami/ballroom-lighting/ (Ballroom Lighting for Weddings in Miami)

That structure seems the most logical to me, but you should do your own research to back this up. Conduct thorough keyword research for each service in each location and structure your landing page content accordingly. For example, main category pages broadly targeting root keyword, but display "cards" or sections that link to each location without optimising those main category pages for the locations - save this for the location-based landing pages. So this sub-navigation is in the body, rather than in the main navigation, for user-friendliness.

I think with something like events, you don't want to shove the locations in the user's face first thing. Let them see what you offer (the different event types), then delve down into the locations, and the specific services within those locations.

People are free to disagree with me, and I welcome critique on these thoughts. I do think with SEO, it gets to a point after "best practices" that it comes down to more of personal preferences.

[pdrama231]

This is great stuff. Thank you! Would you happen to have an example of a site that does this well? I think you're spot on in your suggestions and would love to see it in practice.

[Ria_]

No website in particular that springs to mind, I'm afraid. But it's not uncommon practice, and I'm sure you'll find plenty within your industry from a little competitor research.

Good luck!