Local SEO same company two different locations

[donsilvernail]

I have a client who has 2 locations approx 20 miles apart. He wants to reach new customers at the second office location. He is an owner of a law firm he practices elder law, in the second location he has an attorney who practices injury law. The second location is in an area where targeting prospects for elder law could also be lucrative. We currently have two separate websites for each area of law.

My question is...

Would it be suggested to create another elder law website to target the potential clients in this second location.

Also for the first location we have put in place a content marketing strategy that has increased revenue considerably. Basically creating content (blog posts) that resonate with the target audience. If a new website is in order can the blog post be posted here too with a canonical referencing the original website. Im thinking a slow redistribution of content on the new site.

Advice here is greatly appreciated as this new market for my client could increase revenue even more.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Would it be suggested to create another elder law website to target the potential clients in this second location.

I wouldn't do this Donald. The way Google views this sort of thing is 'why produce it on a second website, when the first website would do just fine'. If there was a huge separation in industries, then yes, it would be advisable, but for this, I would keep it all within the same site.

-Andy

[donsilvernail]

So what would be the proper way of expanding the local search radius? We are doing fine about ten miles out. Should we create  a second page dedicated to the 2nd office location? this is what i am asking for the best way to implement a local campaign for the second office. Remember there is already a lawyer in the second office location that practice injury law. Should a second page be created on the website about elder law? should I do it for both websites?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

My apologies, I didn't notice that there were 2 sites already in place. If I were starting from scratch, I would have kept everything under one site.

So lets ignore office 1 and concentrate on the second. I would not go adding additional pages to office 1 because you don't want to run into difficulties where you are trying to compete against yourself for the same terms. No harm in mentioning it, but don't try and compete.

Office 2 should have it's own set of skills, keywords, location and Google My Business page. My only concern is if Google sees two websites for one business like this. It shouldn't be a problem, but there is always an element of unknown with Google and if you tie these in together through Google My Business, you might draw additional attention.

-Andy

[donsilvernail]

The second office is branded entirely different, The only thing it has similar is the business name. In fact both websites are branded toward their respective urls,

central jersey injury

mercer elder law

Each website makes note that there is another office in a separate location. The only thing that brings them together is the logo which is archer law office, llc  They are in their own right two different businesses.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Donald!

Good topic! Ideally, this is how most Local SEOs would suggest organizing a business with this model:

• A single website representing the brand

• A unique page on the site for each service

• A unique page on the site for each of the two physical offices

• Both offices on the Contact page and in the footer

• A unique Google+ Local page for each of the 2 locations, and a unique citation set for each of the physical locations

Instead, what your client has done is to build out a unique website for each of their two specialties. Fortunately, as the business has two unique locations, many of the concerns that would normally surround such a strategy do not apply. If the client only had one office and had built out two websites - that would be a big concern. But, happily, this is not the case with your client.

Nevertheless, the drawbacks of your client's approach are that, instead of all of the work he does pouring into building up the strength of a single brand on a single site, he is going to have to split his energy and funding between two different sites. It's not as convenient to do this, but if the client wishes to stick with this approach, here are a few things to be sure not to do:

• Don't share phone numbers between the two offices. Each must have its own unique local phone number

• Do a citation audit to be sure that there are no merged listings and that the name, address, phone number and website for location A are not mixed up anywhere with those of location B. Everything must be separate and distinct at all times. The Google+ Local pages and citation sets for the 2 offices must be totally unique.

• Do not put the address, phone number or URL of website A on website B or vice versa, anywhere. Keep these sites totally separate. Do not link from one website to the other.

• Do not share content of any kind between the two websites. All content must be unique on the two sites.

Hopefully, following these steps, you can prevent merging of details, and can simply market the two sites the way any local businesses would be marketed. Hope this helps!