Http://www.domain.com/services/city or http://www.domain.com/city

[jimmy0225]

Hi,

I have a website created on a WordPress Platform.  My site is in  the "Service" industry and we perform the same service for many different "cities."

My question pertains to the Navigation Bar and SEO.

Is it better to have a "Service" tab on the navigation bar - that has sub navigation that lists all the cities on a drop down menu.  When this happens the URL string looks like http://www.domain.com/service/city

The other choice would be to create individual TABS on the NAV bar, by doing this the URL string would look - http://www.domain.com/city .

I could be wrong, but I am assuming the http://www.domain.com/city is better than http://www.domain.com/services/city for SEO purposes,

....if I am correct is there a way to make SUB Menu URLS appear as http://www.domain.com/city ?

Any input as always would be appreciated

best regards,

Jimmy

[hlve]

What a Toughy! ;]

I think that cluttering up the navigation with a ton of tabs for cities won't make your user experience thrive, nor will it benefit you at all on the SEO side of things.

You're best bet would be to go with your second choice. Create a single link in the navigation for 'Service'. Then on the 'Service' page, create a dropdown which includes your cities.

As far as redirecting/rewriting the URLs from linking goes, for the most part, you CAN do that using your HTACCESS file, and RewriteRule. However, I wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't give you any added benefit.

[WilliamCarr]

I would use the following format: .../service-areas/city-name/

I've successfully used this URL structure, but creating these city pages is a ton of work. A lot of companies get this wrong and recycle the same page over and over while switching the city name throughout the page.

Focus on creating content that's going to make users have a positive experience on the site. Use case studies, photos, testimonials, videos, city/town resources that are relevant (if the site is about construction - link to official city/town page with relevant permit info, ect).

[CandymanKen]

I agree that your second option is probably best from a layout point of view. As for the URLs, you can always change them by changing the permalinks for each city page individually or by setting a general permalink structure without the category (i.e. services) if you want.

Hope this helps.

Ken

[Landforce]

I'd agree with everyone else on doing 'Services' in the Nav with cities dropping down. However, the URL thing is irrelevant to how you want to do your Nav. It sounds like you're thinking to do the Nav you have to do pages and sub pages -- not the case at all. It's 2013! Wordpress 3.0!

Appearance >> Menus >> Build your menu however you'd like and drop in the pages as desired.