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oh and just a note, no actual redirection is happening, the plugin is simply adding a query string to the end of the URL when the page loads.

Jasmine,Man do I wish you were right about this. Unfortunately, no dice. Our website doesn't request personal information outside of the "Contact Us" form and a form for requesting an appointment, but even then we're not talking about any medical information at all.  I've been turned down multiple times for all remarketing campaigns. I would love to hear from anyone who has had success with this recently.

Hi There Red! What is the client's actual relationship to customers in Boston? Is there one? A few more details on this might help.

Thank you everyone for the excellent feedback!

Hi Richard, I understand that it gets posted about in fair detail , but I do feel that the issue of when trying to create a branded enterprise for an SMB that's trying to move toward franchising is typically not addressed. This was a particular situation I was inquiring about not just a general inquiry about subdomains versus subfolders.

Hi Jason, As for as the bots are concerned, there is no difference between subdomains or subfolders in terms of SEO. I've always gone with subfolders, myself, as I find them easier to manage than a bunch of different subdomains, but you are free to use whichever format with which you are most comfortable. Just make sure you are creating really good, unique content for these city landing pages to avoid looking manipulative. Remember, true Local rankings hinge on physical location - not service area - so these city landing pages will need o be thought of as more organic than local, and all traditional SEO tactics apply.

Useing text or alt tag is ok. as a text is visisble and alt tag is not, one tends to believe that search engines will like it better. But dont hide text, a lot of users use text-indent: -99999px to move text off the screen. This is a signal of spam to google.

Excellent Response Robert.  That was exactly what I was looking for. Very interesting, I guess this is the Directories answer to the Local Pack pushing them down in the rankings a year ago. Great Insight.  Thanks.

I understand completely Steven. We are often in a position where we are trying to offer advice based upon a limited slice of information. We do the best we can with what we know, and we will arrive at different conclusions. Perhaps Jason will enlighten us further on his situation.