Is it necessary for a single location business to have a location landing page?

[formandfunctionagency]

I'm working with a dental practice that has one location that they use to serve a service area radius of about 15-30 mins drive time, which encompasses several other small towns. I understand the value of having individual location pages for a multi-location business, but is creating a location page for a business with a single office considered best practice as well? The entire site will be optimized for the city name that the business' physical office is located in.

I'm considering creating a single location landing page that I'd link to from the footer and about navigation of the site, which would be similar to the template Miriam Ellis laid out in this awesome post: https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages In doing this, I'm hoping to create a place for office photos and driving directions from the nearby towns in order to name the different cities in the service area.

However, I'm concerned about the location page competing with other pages on the site, which will be better optimized for conversions in my opinion. Does anyone have advice on best practice here?

[EGOL]

I would have one if I was a dentist.  I would want to show a photo of my building, tell people where they can park, tell people about bus stops and other transportation details.   Driving to the nearby town is very easy, getting to an address can be more difficult.  People arrive in many different ways.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey There!

In the scenario you've described, my answer would be "no", creating a landing page for a single location brick-and-mortar business does not make good horse sense. As you've rightly pointed out, the entire website is optimized for this location, nullifying the need for additional landing pages. If the dental practice opens a second location, then yes, do create these types of pages, but right now, it's not necessary either for patients or for your SEO efforts.

More on this: right now, the dental practice's only association with cities other than its city of location is that some patients may come to the locale from additional towns. That's fine, but it's nothing to really publicize. After all, a famous restaurant might have diners travel from all over the world to patronize it, but it just wouldn't make sense for the restaurant to build a landing page for each possible customer origin, right?

So, if the dental practice wants to build awareness of itself in neighboring communities, then it needs to have some stronger relationship to publicize than the fact that some if its patients live in towns B, C or D. This is where the role of relationship building comes into play. A dentist in Town A could possibly sponsor events in Town B, or speak at a conference in Town C, or offer a discount to parents for kids' first dental exams in Town D. These would be actual topics to write about on the website, or to promote via social media. Genuine relationships could be built by this type of outreach, and while it wouldn't be highlighted via landing pages, it could begin to build up brand awareness in these additional communities where the dentist lacks a physical office.

I'd also advise the dentist to consider what he can offer, in Town A, that is lacking in Towns B & C. For example, I traveled several towns away to a holistic dentist to have my mercury filling safely replaced for health reasons. No one in my own town offered this. If I were that dentist, I'd be doing everything I could to publicize rare or valuable services that are worth traveling for.

And, in the meantime, be sure the Contact page for the single location rates an A+ in thoroughness.

Hope this helps!

[formandfunctionagency]

Hi Miriam, thanks for the thorough answer, that really helps to clear things up! Those are all great options to build some organic buzz in neighboring towns.

[MiriamEllis]

You're very welcome! So glad that it helped.