Sub domain for geo pages

[underdogmike]

Hello Group!

I have been tossing the idea in my head of using sub domains for the geo pages for each of my clients.

For example: one of my clients is a lawyer in a very competitive Atlanta market http://bestdefensega.com.

Can I set his geo page to woodstock.bestdefensega.com?

Is this a viable option?

Will I get penalized?

Thoughts or suggestions always appreciated!

Thanks in Advance

[montana.marsden]

I wouldn't recommend this approach. You definitely won't get penalized but you'll hurt your domain authority.

Subdomains are treated by Google as different websites (here's a great Whiteboard Friday about it) so by creating a subdomain instead of a folder you're diluting your "potential".

The better approach for your situation is create folders with geo specific locations and high performing/volume keywords. An example of this would be www.domainname.com/city-stateabbreviation-keyword (http://bestdefensega.com/woodstock-ga-lawyers or better yet use more "intent specific" long-tailed keywords like http://bestdefensega.com/woodstock-ga-lawyer-services )

This way when your geo specific pages get recognition from Google (whether through user data, link equity, etc.) it's not being diluted, it's full "potential" is given to your root domain which will help boost all of your pages.

Hopefully this helps!

-Jacob