Dental Office With Two Locations And Same Practice Name
-
Dentists buy other practices all the time. Sometimes they change the name of the practice and other times they keep the name.
I am working with a dentist on a new website because their old one is riddled with flash (and is ugly too) She has two practices but they have the same practice name. One of them caters to half English speaking and half Spanish speaking patients.
I'm thinking I should create a separate website for each practice mainly because we may want to design the graphics and text for the appropriate patient language probably with a English/Spanish translation button on the website?
For localization, wouldn't it be better to have a url for each physical site?
Suggestions?
-
Hi Bob,
I'm getting a 'server not found' page when I tried to access your demo site. I guess I don't know what theme you're using, but I would imagine you can create whatever kind of pages or you'd need to. If you're using something like the All-in-One SEO-Pack and permalinks, you could even make the 2 city landing pages as blog posts and just link to them from the main menu. But, I don't know what challenges you are facing with your theme, obviously.
Hope you can figure it out. I know it's sometimes tough when clients are on a tight budget. You've just got to let them know what you can do for their investment. The nice thing about websites is that they can always grow as budget becomes available. Good luck!
-
I'll have to figure out how to do this. I was planning on using Wordpress for this. Here is the demo site I have so far. dental1.datacomplete.com. I don't think this theme can be tweaked to allow for the landing pages as you described but I will give it a shot tomorrow. Unfortunately the dentists that I am working with are going through a rebuilding process and their funds are somewhat limited so I am trying to get something up for them with cost in mind and with something that they can edit the content themselves. Thanks again!
-
Hi Bob,
Thanks for answering my question. Given what you've described, I don't see the necessity for the complexity of subdomains, though others might see this differently. What I see is this:
-
She has one business. This logically equals one website.
-
She can create a city landing page for each of her offices on the site (mytoothdoctor.com/torrance and mytoothdoctor.com/wilmington). Yes, you can link to these from the homepage as well as from the main menu. Be sure that these pages are not simply duplicates of one another with the city name changed. They need to be unique, helpful pages of copy for the user, as well as being locally optimized.
-
She can optimize her contact page, footer and other areas of the site for both of her offices...it's not like you're dealing with 20 locations here. Only two of them.
-
She can offer a Spanish language version of the site as well. No problemo so long as you follow best practices on this.
-
She can claim a unique Google Place page for each location, plus other local business directory listings because of the distinct location data.
In your shoes, I would be looking for the easiest-to-manage plan for this client, and unless I'm really missing something, I don't see a need for subdomains in this scenario, and certainly not for multiple websites. Build a single, powerhouse site for the client and both you and she will find it easy to manage for the long haul.
Hope my suggestions help! Miriam
-
-
Thanks for the information.
Yes she has two locations operating under the same name and are 6 miles apart with different zip codes and different phone numbers.
I may want to try that "Chat Live Now" type of software for her practice and she may want to give different offers to different offices.
if i used something like mytoothdoctor.com for the main site and then displayed a box to choose a location would that be kinda goofy?
Then I would have mytoothdoctor.com as the main site and then torrance.mytoothdoctor.com and wilmington.mytoothdoctor.com
-
Hi Bob,
I want to be sure I understand this correctly. When you say the dentist bought a second practice, are you saying that she now has 2 physical offices with unique local are code phone numbers and street addresses, though they share the same business name? Is that right?
If they are in 2 distinct locations with unique phone/addresses, then it is up to the client whether she wants to be running 2 different businesses, or simply be a multi-location business.
If she wants that practices branded differently, then, yes, I would vote for 2 websites, with the proviso that nothing is duplicated from one site to the other. All content must be unique for each site if she really wants to be running 2 distinct practices.
If she wants to have a single practice with different branches, I vote for building one well-optimized website and utilizing Local SEO best practices to ensure that her geo information is being correctly featured for the two locations. Again, landing pages for the two offices will need to feature unique copy (hire a copywriter who knows Local) and the footer, contact page and other elements need to be appropriately optimized in accord with best local practices. Lots and lots of businesses have more than one location, so this would just be a typical Local SEO project. Get the dentist to consult with a Local SEO if this isn't your area so that the new design has the right stuff baked into it from step one.
Regarding duplicate content on multilingual site, this is not a major concern. I recommend reading this earlier Q&A thread on this topic:
http://www.seomoz.org/q/site-with-multiple-languages
Hope this helps!
Miriam
-
Hi Bob
I have dealt with a similar situation for one of my clients. They offered same service at 2 different states and also they had a 3rd site for their educational site.
They worked with a company that had over 20 domain names forwarding in each address and created confusion. So we basically build one site http://www.adaptivemobility.com/ and we forwarded the 2 existing domains to the interanl pages of the site http://www.adaptivemobility.com/indiana/ and http://www.adaptivemobility.com/florida/ .
This worked for our client and made it easy to promote as they usually send everyone now to their main site. But all other sites that linked to the old URls still link to the internal pages. I hoped the link will help you decide on what to do. I also agree with just having a translation option build in.
-
Hi Bob,
I would think you would need to be careful with this situation. I am unsure if duplicate content problems can arise if the content is in two different languages. I think you nailed it on the head when you said one website with a translation button.
For localization I think it would depend on how far away these locations are from each other and if both practices are doing business the same way.
It is possible to add more than one location to directories with a single URL.
Hope I helped....
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Domain Name Change
Hello fellow Mozzers! Quick question:
Branding | | David-Kley
We have been looking into changing our domain name into something a bit easier to read and recite. I think that we have found one, and it has a very long history. The issue is that the new domain name removes one of our keywords. Example, current domain name:
webdesignandcompany.com
We have built a lot of branding around this name. Example of domain we are considering:
BLANKdesign.com (blank is to protect the domain name we are considering) The new domain is over 20 years old, whereas ours is only around 7 years. I am wondering if we are shooting ourselves in the foot by removing the word "web" since that is a primary focus of our business. The issue is that the current domain and business name are not very catchy, and hard to say in a phone call and remember. Feels keyword heavy and generic, but it ranks well. Really well. We would be doing a 301 redirect if we decide to change it, and we have Yext and Moz to help clean up all the listings. My question is: Is it worth it to switch? Would the removal of the word web make it harder to rank number 1 or two, since people search for web design? Or since we would be leaving all the titles and meta the same, and that the domain is older than ours make that not an issue? THOUGHTS?0 -
In the Google search results, the company name (with the drop down arrow) next to the result URL is incorrect. The company being displayed here is a company we acquired many years back. How do I adjust/fix this?
When I search any term for my organization, we are getting good results BUT the company name, next to the results URL is of an orgnization we acquired many years back and not the name of our company. The URL is correct page JUST the company name next to this URL is incorrect on the Google search results page. How do I go about changing so the company name next to the URL ?
Branding | | DigitalNTT0 -
Legacy Locations and Google Local - How to Handle
Hello - I'm working with a client who has some transitioning brands - and they're hesitant to change the legacy branding in Google Local and on their website because they're afraid of losing traffic from the old brand. Is there a standard practice for keeping traffic on the old brand terms, while still adjusting to the new branding on Google/Yahoo/Bing? Thanks,
Branding | | WebTalent0 -
Will you show a case study/live analytics of Moz before and after name change?
so many people are interested these days in changing domains either for branding purposes like you did or some people believe that having an exact match domain will save the day. I believe posting any knowledge you have gained through your fantastic looking analytics system could shed light on a subject so many people seem to be asking about. Some things I would love to know regarding the amount of people that you have either gained or lost through organic search along with your ranking for the term "seo" And other things you guys must be learning along the way as well. I would also like to know your opinion of having a meter of some sort tell us just how many new people type in Moz vs seomoz I tink it would be a great topic for people to learn about branding from as well as a way to show off your new analytics. Fellow Mozers to you agree or not? ( I now see all the little tricks you guys have been putting in our head by never using seo in branding for a long time aside from of course your name) Great job on the transition. Sincerely, Thomas PS. Did Roger get a new coat of paint or did you just take him to the car wash?
Branding | | BlueprintMarketing0 -
A forum on your primary domain name (implications)
Hi there What are the pitfalls of putting a forum on an already busy ecommerce website from an SEO perspective?
Branding | | bfrl
I wouldn't use a sub domain, I would add the forum on the primary domain in an attempt to help build my inbound link portfolio. Some pro's and cons that come to mind... Pros - Lots of (hopefully) great user generated and relevant content - Lots of potential landing pages off the back of the above Targeted community Cons - Dealing with potential negative forum posts Constant moderation Possible issues with potentially 1000's of (what Google may consider) low quality pages on a domain name / site which currently fairs well in the SERPs The last con would be my primary concern.
Anyone have any experiences with this? Or any advice at all. Many thanks0 -
Changing a "city" or "town" location in google maps
Hello Mozinators! I have a client I currently work with doing SEO that has a rare problem that I have not come across before nor have I been able to find any information on how to make changes for it. The problem being that the city/township is more of a community that has yet to officially be labeled as a city, yet is still marked as a town on google maps. This is a great step in the right direction however the google maps location is over the wrong place. I have attached screenshots of the google maps for this location. In the top is a place called "Lakewood Ranch" and it is not in the correct spot. Lakewood Ranch should instead be in the bottom corner of the overview screenshot, where the town center is and the medical center off of the "University PKWY" exit. I have absolutely no idea on where to start to get these changes put in place, nor if they can even be put in place. Please let me know! Thank you so much in advance! a86TM.png u1ipV.png
Branding | | jbster130 -
Should your company's name be in the title tag of your website?
First of all, I would like to provide some background information. Our company is small. We are just now getting into SEO research and have been improving over a couple months of research. We are somewhere in the 500,000's in the world rankings. From what I understand, the title tag provides a great amount of weight to whatever keywords you set up. The words in the title tag are supposed to represent keywords that you want to be high in the search engines for, correct? Well, in our title tag, we have the name of our company. To me, this is a waste of space. No one is going to go to Google and search for our company's name because we are not that widely known. Looking back at our search history for customers, there has not been a single search for the company name. What someone is telling me, is that when we put our link somewhere, having the name of our company in the title tag strengthens the "link juice" we get from those links. Is this correct, or is it worth trashing the company name for another keyword to optimize?
Branding | | FrontlineMobility0 -
Need a quick simple report comparing popularity of two brand names...
CURT Manufacturing compared to Reese Products. curtmfg.com and reeseprod.com Both sell towing and trailer hitch products. What is the best approach you can recommend using the Pro tools? I perform lightweight analytics using Google Analytics, and some keyword tools here, and also Majestic SEO and Compete - but not a pro and would LOVE it if someone can give me best course direction. Thank you, M Adelman
Branding | | CURT-20817
CURT Mfg.0