How to approach SEO for a business with three distinct focus areas
-
I have a client who has asked for the development and optimisation of three websites for a business located at one address. They offer specialised skin care, have a make-up artistry division and also a luxury portraiture/photographic service offered to clients. I have suggested one website, based on all I have read in this community (Possum etc.).
Their concern is that they will seem like a "master of none" and envision three sites interlinked. Before I push back and categorically say that this is a poor idea, I wanted to gain some insight from those of you who may have dealt with this scenario before. I need to explain how one domain can be structured to present all three these areas as distinct, given that the home page will speak to all three. Any ideas regarding site structure and optimisation strategy would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
-
Three websites = 3x the work...and budget needed. Similar to a medical clinic when it comes to services. List this company's services and optimize accordingly. If it is an incredibly competitive market, niche website may be the way to go.
If I had it my way, in a medium to low competition market, i would focus on strengthen the content & DA on one site, rather than 3.
-
Hi Werner,
This is a really interesting scenario, not typical of this type of question, in that you are genuinely talking about 3 different businesses here. Most often, we see questions in the forum from something like an HVAC contractor who wants to do one website for heating and another for cooling. The answer to that is an unequivocal "no", because the business is really a single entity trying to fake the appearance of being multiple businesses for the sake of SEO.
In your client's case, she has 3 unique businesses that would be represented by 3 unique Google My Business categories. Because of the different categories, we'd think less about Possum problems in this scenario, despite the shared address, because someone looking for a make-up artist is not going to be doing the same search as they would if they were seeking a portrait photographer. If she had 3 different offices, each offering just one of the services, it would make sense to consider 3 different websites accompanies by 3 sets of citations/reviews/social outreach, etc.
But, the fact that this is one owner, at a single location would make me steer her away from the multi-site approach. Managing the marketing for 3 businesses is likely to lead to burnout of either finances or creative resources, and there is the off-chance that Google could mistake the model as spam, deciding that the 3 businesses are actually just one, given the share address. I'm actually not too scared that they would do this, but it is a risk, even if she were to establish the 3 separate phone lines staffed by people who always answer the phone for only the correct business.
I think the dilemma/opportunity facing your client is one of business identity. She needs to identify what connects her three services instead of dividing them up by how they differ. If she can hit upon a single business identity that covers this wide range of services, she'll have a single business to market, at a single address, with a single phone to staff, a single reputation to manage. Your client sounds creative. I'd advise brainstorming with her so that you wind up with something like a business called "Best Face" that covers having your makeup done, your portrait taken, and your skin treated all under one roof, rather than being Anna's Makeup, Anna's Skin Care and Anna's Portraits on 3 different sites. Build a single brand that revolves around celebration of the human face, or something along those lines, and put EGOL's good advice into full action, cross selling the services and creating an indelible reputation for the owner.
-
Yes, guiding structure. Showing clear ties from one service of the business to another.
-
You are spot on with that description! She is a very gifted and versatile person who needs to continue to apply what has been natural...with a little bit of guiding structure.
-
Your client sounds like a Renaissance Man. A person who has mastered many things. A Leonoardo da Vinci. If this person also has panache, presenting a business of many artistic services seems natural.
-
Thank you very much EGOL. This confirms my intended strategy, and gives some substance to the conversation I need to have. I'll need to figure out how to best structure this website so that potential clients see each offering as valuable in their own right, but also see the relevance to other services, as you have pointed out. This would also need to be coupled with some landing pages, me thinks. Thanks again.
-
I would work on convincing the client about....
-- the value of cross-selling, many current clients probably use more than one service, they bought one and then bought more
-- the importance of uniting all of your assets to perform well in search
-- the relevance of these services to one another and how that might help them rank better in google and appeal to multiple customers
-- in these businesses it is hard to find someone you can trust and satisfies you... once you find that person or business it is much easier to allow them to do additional services for you... this is building loyalty of the customer and building their respect for your business
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Which are the best off-page SEO techniques for 2020?
I have just published an awesome website or blog, and i really worked hard keeping everything perfect. Do you think it’s enough? Having a perfect blog, website or business is just enough. i need readers for my blog, visitors to my website, and customers for my business. So, what to do?
Local Website Optimization | | boxinghunter0 -
International SEO: reposting my own posts to different ccTLDs versions of my website
Hello there Moz community! Moz has been super helpful for me and the team, keep up the good work! I have searched online for answers regarding my specific situation, but I haven't found any. I'm asking my fellow Moz users in hopes of an answer. Maybe this thread will help others too. I currently have this domain: https://eco-reusable.com/ I would like to target Ireland and the UK with my keywords so I have just bought eco-reusable**.IE** and eco-reusable**.CO.UK** My questions are: 1. In order to rank as high as possible for Ireland, do I create a new website for eco-reusable.ie using the same pages but changing all the content slightly so it is not duplicate content OR do I point the eco-reusable.ie domain to eco-reusable.com? By having two sites, we will add more hours but we don't mind if that will be of benefit in the longrun for ranking high in Ireland. I have the same question for eco-reusable.co.uk
Local Website Optimization | | Gael_Regnault
If we have to create three websites and make similar content (not duplicate), we will if it will be better for ranking high in ireland for .ie, in the UK for .co.uk and for the rest of the world for .com 2. If we create three websites, can I safely "copy/paste" my blog posts without being punished by Google for duplicate content? If so, how much variation do we have to have for each of the three sites if we are writing blogs that are the same context. Thank you in advance! 🙂0 -
Content writing for single entity business (The use of I)
Most of my clients consist of single entity law firms in which my clients repeatedly use the pronoun "I" to describe every service they provide. I have always preferred using the business name The Law Office of..." put lawyer name here". Is it ok to repetitively use the pronoun "I" in the content. To me it feels lack luster and childish not very professional, however I have a hard time convincing the lawyers of this. What are your thoughts? Can good content be written with the repetitive use of "I"? If not is the business name sufficient or maybe another pronoun? I will be showing responses to my clients if that is ok.
Local Website Optimization | | donsilvernail0 -
Understand how site redesign impacts SEO
Hi everyone, I have, what I think, is kind of a specific question, but hoping you guys can help me figure out what to do. I have a client that recently changed their entire website (I started working with them after it happened, so I can't comment on what the site was like as far as content was before). I know they were using a service that I see a lot of in the service industry that aim to capitalize on local business (i.e. "leads nearby" or "nearby now") by creating pages for each targeted city and I believe collecting reviews for each city directly on the website. When they redesigned their website, they dropped that service and now all those pages that were ranking in SERPs are coming back as 404s because they are not included in the new site (I apologize if this is getting confusing!) The site that they moved to is a template site that they purchased the rights to from an already successful company in their same industry, so I do think the link structure probably changed, especially with all of the local pages that are no longer available on the site. Note: I want to use discretion in using company names, but happy to share more info in a private message if you'd like to see the sites I am talking about as I have a feeling that this is getting confusing 🙂 Has anyone had experience with something like this? I am concerned because even though I am targeting the keywords being used previously to direct content to the local pages to new existing pages, traffic to the website has dropped by nearly 60% and I know my clients are going to want answers-- and right now, I only have guesses. I am really looking forward to and so greatly appreciate any advice you might be able to share, I'm at a bit of a loss right now.
Local Website Optimization | | KaitlinNS0 -
Business in one location, be found in others?
Hi all, A bit of an interesting one but I am sure you can all help. My client has a business in a town called location A. Surrounding town A there are several other towns - My client wants to make sure they also appear in SERPs for these surrounding areas, even though their business is not physically located there. E.g. Product town A
Local Website Optimization | | HB17
Product town B
Product town C
Or even just being physically searching from one of those locations and typing the product name, they want to be on that first page. For example if you live in town B which is 20 miles away, my clients still wants to appear right at the top of the SERPs as they are competing against other businesses for that area. They also want to appear for town C, D, and E, all of which are surrounding town A. How can I make this happen? Would I need to create multiple landing pages and focus the SEO on each individual location? I'm just worried Google would see duplicate content but with varied location keywords. I don't have any room left in the page title to add every location. They do legitimately serve these areas, if you are looking for their product there are a few competitors around but this is in their 'territory' so to speak. Any help big or small would be great. Thanks!0 -
Subdomain versus Subfolder for Local SEO
Hello Moz World, I'm wanting to know the best practices for utilizing a subdomain versus a subfolder for multi location businesses, i.e. miami.example.com vs. example.com/miami; I would think that that utilizing the subdomain would make more sense for a national organization with many differing locations, while a subfolder would make more sense for a smaller more nearby locations. I wanted to know if anyone has any a/b examples or when it should go one way or another? Thank you, Kristin Miller
Local Website Optimization | | Red_Spot_Interactive0 -
Structured Data Schema for Local business
Hi Where should you add ‘local business’ schema, the 'Home Page', ‘About Us’ page, 'Contact Us' page etc etc ? I presume the page with the address such as 'contact us' page but if say the address is on every page say in a footer for example is it ok to add address schema to every page ? I know someone who did this and havn't got any rich snippets out of it so presume best to focus on one primary page such as 'contact' or 'about' type pages ? Also: If your business serves multiple areas can you add schema for the other areas too or is it only for your primary business address ?
Local Website Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence
For example if your business address is listed in say ‘Wandsworth’ but you visit & serve customers in ‘Clapham’, ‘Balham’ & other regions of South West London, anyway of adding local business address structured data to your site for these areas too (to help target local searches including these other regions) Many Thanks
Dan0 -
Does the Location of my Server effect my SEO?
Does the geographic Location of my Server effect my SEO? HELP US! We are arguing for 3 weeks already. My partner has mentioned multiple times in the past that "since 2013 google does not require your server to be in the country you are targeting for seo"
Local Website Optimization | | DanielBernhardt
And that actually all they care about is if its a good and fast server - not where its physically located in the world. I am a strong believer that the geographic location of your server directly effects your SEO ranking... lets say if you want to target www.google.ru for your seo, best you have a server located in Russia for hosting your website.. WHO IS RIGHT? Choose the winner and base the facts.
If anybody has the correct answer and information to base it on it will help us alot - and maybe even spare some unnecessary violent between us two! we found some articles across the web, sadly they are all dated back to 2012.... Thanks in Advance for all the help guys!0