Which URL and rel=canonical structure to use for location based product inventory pages?
-
I am working on an automotive retailer site that displays local car inventory in nearby dealerships based on location. Within the site, a zip code is required to search, and the car inventory is displayed in a typical product list that can be filtered and sorted by the searcher to fit the searchers needs.
We would like to structure these product inventory list pages that are based on location to give the best chance at ranking, if not now, further down the road when we have built up more authority to compete with the big dogs in SERP like AutoTrader.com, TrueCar.com, etc. These higher authority sites are able to rank their location based car inventory pages on the first page consistently across all makes and models.
For example, searching the term "new nissan rogue" in the Los Angeles, CA area returns a few location based inventory pages on page 1. The sites in the industry that are able to rank their inventory pages will display a relatively clean looking URL with no redirect that still displays the local inventory like this in the SERP:
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/New+Cars/Nissan/Rogue
but almost always use a rel=canonical tag within the page to a page with a location parameter attached to the end of the URL like this one:
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/New+Cars/Nissan/Rogue/Los+Angeles+CA-90001"/>
I'm having a hard time figuring out why sites like this example have their URLs and pages structured this way.What would be the best practice for structuring the URL and rel=canonical tags to be able to rank for and display location based inventory pages for cars near the searcher?
-
Everett,
Thank you for your time and responses. They have been most helpful in deciding our strategy direction moving forward.
-
Barrett,
I think the Car Gurus way you laid out above is a great solution. This allows you to scale content as well, since now you can provide content only on the single canonical zip code page for that "area". What are some things that Los Angeles drivers need to know about buying a new or used vehicle? Is there anything specific you can call out, like "The last thing you want in LA is to be stuck in traffic on the 405 with a car that won't start..."? If you can pull in data about the zip code it may be possible to automate some customizations at scale as well, such as the average price of new and used vehicles in that zip code, which vehicles are the most popular in that zip code, etc...
Either way it sounds like you're thinking about the problem in the right way so I'm sure you'll be successful. Good luck!
-
Thank you for your response Everett! The above mentioned strategy is used widely within the large brand equity type companies in the industry so it's great to know that that is not the URL structure and rel=canonical strategy that we want to go for right now. We have been exploring other similar strategies to accomplish the same goal.
One strategy that is very similar within the industry for these types of inventory pages is that of cargurus.com. For terms like "nissan rogue los angeles", they are only ranking 1 inventory page for used and 1 for new for all of Los Angeles:
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-Nissan-Rogue-Los-Angeles-d1047_L2163
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/new/nl-New-Nissan-Rogue-Los-Angeles-d1047_L2163
These pages default to the 90009 zip code no matter where in Los Angeles you are searching from. Changing the zip code within the site to 90001 for example, resets the inventory list by loading a new page, but always rel=canonicals to the 90009 zip code version of the page. I have tested this in several cities and the same is true for all major cities. For these inventory pages they have chosen one centralized zip code to display nearby inventory to rank for and all other zip codes within that same city rel=canonical back to the chosen centralized zip code.Do you think that this would be the best way to structure our URLs for all cities to rank these types of inventory pages for search terms like "nissan rogue los angeles"?
Side question along these same lines: if we followed a similar strategy to this one, and had one zip code for Los Angeles and one zip code for San Diego, would those two inventory pages be considered duplicate content by Google? Or would they be ok since it is a product page that is simply displaying inventory much like ecommerce sites?
-
That is a very interesting setup by Auto Trader. The Rel = "Canonical" URL changes on the true canonical page depending on your location. So this URL:
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/New+Cars/Nissan/Rogue
May canonicalize to either of the URLs below, depending on your location:
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/Nissan/Rogue/Denver+CO-80211
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/New+Cars/Nissan/Rogue/Los+Angeles+CA-90001
Technically speaking, I think it should work the other way around. Their rankings for these geo-specific keywords seem to be pretty good so I can see why it may be tempting to emulate. However, keep in mind that Auto Trader has a TON of brand equity and PageRank so they can get away with things that might harm another site either now, or in the near future.
After speaking with two other colleagues just to verify, my recommendation here would be NOT to do this. At best, these canonical tags on Auto Trader are probably just being ignored by Google.
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
-
What is the best way to display local landing pages in the site nav?
My client has multiple local landing pages and it looks a bit spammy opening up the top nav of e.g."Plumbers" to a long list of "plumbers Melbourne", "plumbers Knoxfield", "plumbers Wantirna" etc etc What is the best way of incorporating local landing pages into the site's overall architecture? Thank you.
Local Website Optimization | | Crystal.w0 -
Local SEO - Multiple stores on same URL
Hello guys, I'm working on a plan of local SEO for a client that is managing over 50 local stores. At the moment all the stores are sharing the same URL address and wanted to ask if it s better to build unique pages for each of the stores or if it's fine to go with all of them on the same URL. What do you think? What's the best way and why? Thank you in advance.
Local Website Optimization | | Noriel0 -
Structured Data Question: Is there any value in "Custom Search Result Filters" structured data?
I have been doing a structured data test for a client who is looking to improve their local SEO. After running several tests in Google Developer Tools structured data testing tool I have been noticing data sets for "Custom Search Result Filters" and "Unspecified Type" structured data properties. I have plans to apply Organization and Local Business schematic markup. However my question is this: do the "Custom Search Result Filters" and "Unspecified Type" offer any value at all? I would like to have a response to our client if they ever ask about this. I attached a snapshot of what this looks like. ydu32k6.jpg?1
Local Website Optimization | | RosemaryB0 -
Can you, somehow, use dynamic number insertion on a click to call button (image)
Hello Moz! I have been beating my head against the wall for a few hours, and I am starting to get a headache. My question is simple: I am doing some work for a local salon, and we started a PPC campaign recently. It's very important that I get accurate ROI metrics from both our PPC efforts and Yelp advertising program, and the best way to do this is by using custom phone numbers and dynamic number insertion w/ CallRail to track phone calls being made to the salon. I can then cross reference the numbers used to call with the salon POS software to see what they spent, how many appts. they booked, etc. A VERY large portion, the majority in fact, of traffic comes from mobile, and in the past I had a big, fat, beautiful CTA click-to-call button that showed the salon phone number. However, I have found that with dynamic number insertion, and my near non-existent programming skills, it is impossible to have the number dynamically insert into an href image. Sooooo...any ideas on how to do this, or is it just not possible????
Local Website Optimization | | Sean_Gutermuth0 -
Location Pages and Duplicate Content and Doorway Pages, Oh My!
Google has this page on location pages. It's very useful but it doesn't say anything about handling the duplicate content a location page might have. Seeing as the loctions may have very similar services. Lets say they have example.com/location/boston, example.com/location/chicago, or maybe boston.example.com or chicago.example.com etc. They are landing pages for each location, housing that locations contact information as well as serving as a landing page for that location. Showing the same services/products as every other location. This information may also live on the main domains homepage or services page as well. My initial reaction agrees with this article: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide - but I'm really asking what does Google expect? Does this location pages guide from Google tell us we don't really have to make sure each of those location pages are unique? Sometimes creating "unique" location pages feels like you're creating **doorway pages - **"Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed to rank for specific queries like city or state names". In a nutshell, Google's Guidelines seem to have a conflict on this topic: Location Pages: "Have each location's or branch's information accessible on separate webpages"
Local Website Optimization | | eyeflow
Doorway Pages: "Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed to rank for specific queries like city or state names"
Duplicate Content: "If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one." Now you could avoid making it a doorway page or a duplicate content page if you just put the location information on a page. Each page would then have a unique address, phone number, email, contact name, etc. But then the page would technically be in violation of this page: Thin Pages: "One of the most important steps in improving your site's ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content." ...starting to feel like I'm in a Google Guidelines Paradox! Do you think this guide from Google means that duplicate content on these pages is acceptable as long as you use that markup? Or do you have another opinion?0 -
Can anyone recommend small UK based SEO Consultancy companies?
Hi there, We're possibly looking for a small, completely whitehat SEO firm here in the UK to work with us from early next year. We've probably got a budget of around £200 - £300 a month. We're looking for top up work really, not a complete campaign. I've checked out http://moz.com/community/recommended but it's not broken down by region or budget. I had an embarrassing phone call with Distilled who it turns out charge £10,000 a month minimum! Can anyone recommend anyone to speak to?
Local Website Optimization | | jennie.evans0 -
Merging two pages into one - bad seo done previously
Hi, I have two pages Page 1
Local Website Optimization | | Syed_Ozair
/stop-smoking-hypnotherapy.php
Page authority: 24 and Page 2
/stop-smoking-in-highgate-north-london-radlett-hertfordshire-and-city-of-london.php
Page authority: 13 with 2 internal links only This was probably done to get more local searches to the page but i think it is a bit spamy. Would it be better to 301 page 2 to page 1 or make it as a blog post and keep it alive?0 -
Google ranking wrong page
I have a client where google is ranking the homepage for a term that I want a specific landing page to rank for. The landing page is filled with great keyword focused content, gets a perfect score on the moz keyword target grader. And the home page is not even about the keyword it is ranking for. Any advice on how to get google to stop ranking the wrong page?
Local Website Optimization | | Atomicx0