Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I know the feeling and concerns, Marshall.  Glad I found the question here!

Assuming I understand your specific questions correctly... Having a /computer-repair/ directory with a /laptop-repair/ subdirectory should not cause you any problems in itself. However, if all of the content in /laptop-repair/* also appears in /computer-repair/* you could have a duplicate content problem to deal with. From your response to Thomas' extremely-detailed and helpful - though somewhat off-topic - comment I assume you already know that though. I would not put the location in the directory, such as /virus-removal-wilmington-nc/. Whether or not you are moving makes no difference. I might make an exception there if you have multiple locations, but even then I think it would be a bad idea to have, for example: /virus-removal-wilmington-nc/laptop-repair/ /virus-removal-charlotte-nc/laptop-repair/ ...unless you had some very specific things to say about each location in regard to laptop repair that could not be expressed on the same page. These would be dangerously close to "doorway pages" which is common in any multi-location industry, and the bane of any SEO's existance when trying to clean up the penalties and filters that so often follow such a taxonomy. Keep it simple. Having the location in the URL like that is a tiny, wee little factor that gets an inordinate amount of attention from SEOs, in my opinion. You are of course free to disagree with this, as you did when someone had a similar opinion in the other thread. In that case, let me answer your other question from that thread: "If I include my current location (Wilmington NC) in the destination (New Domain) URL string for any given 301 redirect from my existing website to the new website and then physically move to another city 3 months later is this setting myself up for a BIG Failure? Seeing how I have no idea of how this technically works with GOOGLE as far as how long this (migration process) takes to Fully complete where the OLD domain completely drops off and everything is Fully passed over to the New Domain in terms leaving the 301 Re directs in place on the Old Domain Server. How long does this process usually take with GOOGLE?" In my experience having done several dozen site migrations on sites of many different types and sizes, it should take Google no more than a few weeks to have their index completely updated for a site the size of yours. This is assuming that they are given the appropriate 301 response codes and are crawling the site regularly (i.e. no existing penalties or major algorithmic filters are in place that would limit crawling). Switching your location like this is just one of several reasons I wouldn't put the location in the URL as proposed, so yes it is shooting yourself in the foot a little bit, but nothing that you won't be able to overcome. They will index the new URL, complete with the new location, and ranking calculations will be updated accordingly. Regarding your other question toward the end of that thread, yes you can change the old htaccess file on the other server later, but there is no guarantee that Google will visit those old URLs again unless you have some external links pointing to them. If they came once, saw the redirect to the new URL, and there is no access to the old URL they may not see if you update the old URL's header response to point to a "new new" URL. If that makes sense. You could initiate the crawl by linking to the old URL from somewhere, such as a sitemap - but I'd advise making a "permanent" redirect permanent. In other words, I'd try to get it right the first time. Keeping the location out of that directory name would allow you to do that, unless I'm missing something. Lastly, I disagree that domain.com/topic-in-charlotte-nc/sub-topic/ is "less" spammy than domain.com/topic/sub-topic/ but we all have a right to our opinions. Good luck!

Hi Marshall, I do not see a spammy link structure in fact if that is your top ranking URL it can be re-created using word press so it is exact. I believe that the reason that URL is so powerful is because of the great content you put in the page. Not because of the URL structure I believe you would rank as well if not better if you were to use a single parameter however it seems that it is really up to you as I think it would be faster  when the bots crawl your site to have one parameter Remember if you 301 redirect that link into another that is identical or change the structure you will still be sending all that page rank to the new URL as long as the new URL has all the things needed to rank for local you will rank regardless of the URL structure. Here is some more information and take a look at the way the URL is made. http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/#structure This is working well however you can build a two parameter link using the site structure that shows simply http://example.com/`%postname%/`. I have some news. I should've remembered this off the bat, but WordPress will not allow you to redirect a link and not follow it's designated perm link style. the preferred method is to have http://example.com/`%postname%/`. it is clean and you are talking about having very long pages that would be a way to make more pages and also keep your keywords in the URLs you may opt for http://example.com/`�tegory%/%postname%/`. however this would make every single link have a category or two-stage parameter this tool may come in handy if you have some difficult URLs http://yoast.com/wp-content/permalink-helper.php you cannot pick both. Without a custom plug-in however from what I've scene and what I've read this is not ideal. You want to make a decision and stick with the link style. http://yoast.com/wordpress-seo-url-permalink/ Out of the box, WordPress is a pretty well optimized system, and does a far better job at allowing every single page to be indexed than every other CMS I have used. But there are a few things you should do to make it a lot easier still to work with. 1.1URLs 1.1.1Permalink structure The first thing to change is your permalink structure. You’ll find the permalink settings under Settings → Permalinks. The default permalink is ?p=, but I prefer to use either /post-name/ or /category/post-name/. For the first option, you change the setting to /%postname%/: [image: Permalink-Settings.jpg] To include the category, you select “Custom Structure” and change the value to/%category%/%postname%/. If you previously had ?p= as your permalink WordPress will take care of all the redirects for you. This is also true if you change from/%postname%/ to /%category%/%postname%/. If you change from any other permalink structure, you might want to consult my article on changing your WordPress permalink structure and the tool that you’ll find within it. P Now you can pick from a group http://yoast.com/wp-content/permalink-helper.php but I do see one that could possibly be broken into new pages instead of adding on a parameter. And last were talking about tagging a page or using a category in the blog. http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ Awesome tool. Pttp://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1235687&topic=2371325&ctx=topic http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seomoz-for-local-optimization I will send you my info now and please except my apologies for taking so long and getting back to you. I got four phone calls and row and had to take them. Sincerely, Tom

Hi Ralph, Excellent question and one frequently wondered over. The trouble is that Google's Adwords Keyword Tool typically shows identical search volumes for keyword+city and city+keyword. I recommend you check out this enormous post on this topic by Linda Buquet: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-ranking/849-local-keyword-research-tools-tricks.html While I don't believe their is a simple, single answer for every case, I hope this resource will give you some new ideas on this!

Good afternoon Jeremy and it's nice to meet you! Thank you for your response to my question but I feel that I have mislead you with my screen shot as I had not added the sidebar yet so I guess that I might have sent the wrong signal due to the partially illustrated intent.  Sorry about that... Jeremy, I agree with you that looking at the existing Navigation Menu "Categories" are very to the point and they are all very high searched for key words in my business and there would be no confusion with my potential customers finding exactly what they need. - Currently as is, my site is very to the point of what I do to both the END USER as well as the Search Engines. But, back to my Specif question on the (existing) "Computer Repair"  category in the Main Nav Menu  vs  using "Computer Service" in its place. I have a couple of concerns with this situation which are legitimate ones. If I use "Computer Repair" as one of the main Themes in the Silo "Main Nav Menu" I will be forced to use "Desktop Repair" to classify Computer Repair in my Sidebar Navigation and that is a problem for a couple of Reasons! 1st Problem - The Majority of People that need Computer Repair do indeed have a desktop computer. However, when people think of getting their Desktop Computer repaired they view it as just Computer Repair and DO NOT search for (repair desktop computer) because they DO NOT classify their DESKTOP as one would classify ( Laptop Repair , Tablet Repair or Phone Repair) because HISTORICALLY  a DESKTOP is just a computer and it was not until laptops, netbooks, tablets, etc came about where there was a need for an actual CLASSIFICATION system. However, case in Point - (even still) today, 95% of the WORLD thinks and Searches for Computer Repair when their Desktop is broken or has a virus or whatever the case may be. This is backed up by the Numbers taken directly from GOOGLE Keyword Tool as shown below. "Computer Repair"  =  823,000 Monthly Local Searches -Desktop Repair  =  12,100   Monthly Local Searches 2nd Problem -  Desktop Repair only Gets 12,100   Monthly Local Searches and derivatives of Desktop Repair related searches get about the same or in most cases, they get significantly less queries  than the very LAME 12,100 Monthly Searches! 3rd Problem - Potential semantic URL Structure problem ( may look SPAMMY) considering that I GEO Target my Business Location in my URL Structures So I am taking multiple things into account here because as we all know, one decision will directly affect 1 or multiple elements which has the potential for disaster in instances such as this. As far as the Migration Process Site design content creation, 301 Redirects on Page level and all of that other jazz, I have that under wraps because I have done extensive research for weeks now on migrating. Plus I am also a coder and am trained and educated on the Server side of things and have been doing web mastering, site development and SEO for 5 1/2 years now and have been working with computers for 32 years on top of that. I would like a strategical view point for this complex dilemma from some other eyes and view points on this matter so I can exchange some ideas and have an intellectual and strategic discussion on this matter in terms of advanced seo and site structure. Here is one Updated Screen shot with the Sidebar Nav in place. Please keep in mind this site is online but blocked to the outside world with the exception of my IP Address. So in short we are looking at  place holders and nothing is set in stone yet as I am currently trying to figure out the best way to go with the Silo Site Structure, Proper Semantic URL Mapping, etc etc. Please do interpret this as an advanced SEO Strategy Planning question from someone who has very advanced skill sets and has been developing with WordPress for 2 1/2 years now exclusively. As technical and challenging as you can get with your responses, I can interpret just fine and handle that. :  D P.S ..  I know how to build out the Silo Site Architecture and am also coding a SPECIFIC Sidebar Nav Menu for Each Silo Theme (Category) that will reflect and stay EXACTLY on Point with the Information Architecture of that Specific Silo Theme. I have only one Problem that I need counsel on and that is.... would it be more advantageous to use "Computer Repair" or  "Computer Service" in the Silo Mast Head (Main Nav) ? Please re-read my first post in addition to this post and help me go in the direction that would be most strategically correct taking all other factors into consideration. Cam PC-MEDICS-Screen-Shot-YELLOW-HOVER.png