Location based landing pages best practices
-
Hello,
I am looking for the communities thoughts on location-based landing pages. That is, writing out dozens, sometimes hundreds of landing pages in the format of domain.com/[keyword]-[location] and recycling the same content over and over to localize organic search engine results.
i have done it with multiple websites and seen tremendous success, however, i am considering getting rid of these pages and having all of the spammy location based pages 301 redirect to my main page domain.com/[keyword]
I am considering this because the above practice seems to be a bit black-hat / spammy and those pages do not offer any unique or valuable content. While i have seen great results from this practice, i feel like Google will eventually penalize this or may already be penalizing me without me knowing it. At the same time, i am hesitant to because these pages are ranking. i.e. domain.com/[keyword-houston] is ranking but domain.com/[keyword] is not ranking
Thoughts?
-
I use city-specific landing pages all of the time to facilitate local SEO for my service area clients. The key to make enough of the content on the pages unique so that they pass muster when checked for duplicate content. Typically, I'll create a blog-style article with 750 - 1000 words or more included within the content to boost the "unique-ness" of the content and then have my team right multiple versions of the topic from scratch for however many pages I need. Its a bit labor intensive, but it works great.
And then if a particular landing page isn't ranking well enough - I know for what pages to build links.
In some instances, if a business has multiple services I'll create entire content silos that consist of a series of unique pages for each service/city combination. For instance, a paint contractor offers interior painting, exterior painting and deck staining. For City A, I build a page for City A + Paint Contractor and have it link to the three sub-pages: City A + Interior, City A + Exterior and City A + Decks. Using internal linking and targeted back linking along with sufficient unique content on each page, we'll often see first page boosts within a few days once they are indexed.
-
Hi Ryan,
I'm so sorry your good question didn't receive a reply yet. May I ask, are the pages you've published representing actual physical locations of the business (like a Taco Bell with thousands of locations) where the business meets face-to-face with its customers? Or, are they just areas of the country you are targeting without having physical locations and in-person interactions? A few details on the business model in question should help you receive some good replies here.
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
-
Local Site stuck on page 2 for years. Can’t penetrate page 1! Help!
Hey there Moz community! This is the first time I've ever asked a question here so please forgive if I slip up on any etiquette. I manage a website for a small Orlando Florida family law and divorce law firm who are targeting search phrases that include those "Orlando divorce attorney" variants. The site is located at https://www.affordablefamilylawyer.com/ If you run a search for "Orlando divorce attorney" along with close variant search terms our law firm website for about the past two years has hovered at the top of the second page of google but has never actually penetrated page 1. When you examine metrics such as page authority, domain authority, trust, and other traditional metrics it tells you that our site should be on page 1 but alas it's not happening. We have, however been featured quite often in the three pack for the local listings for the target search terms. Though valuable, our goal has always been to be featured in the top three of the organic search results. To add to the confusion we have a practice area page located at https://www.affordablefamilylawyer.com/orlando-divorce-lawyer/ dedicated to divorce and expected that page to rank for these divorce attorney search terms but it will not rank for the search terms and instead our homepage ranks for them every single time regardless of how we swap around the optimization on the page. Never had any manual actions. any help you guys can offer is greatly appreciated and I really appreciate your time!
Local SEO | | Seanthewood1230 -
Setting Up Geo Location
I currently have a page that ranks pretty well for X City and is optimized for X City. However, I now want to change the strategy and set up the Home page for State and build X, Y and Z City pages under it. But I want to make sure that when I set the X City page, I somehow transfer the rankings from the home page to this page. I was wondering what the best way would be? One idea was to put a canonical tag on the home page to point to X City page until it at least gets on the first page or so. Then remove the canonical tag and start separate efforts for Home Page for State and X City page for the city. Please suggest if any other ideas.
Local SEO | | Local1280 -
Location based IP Redirect cuasing Google Search Issue
Hi there, My client has a .com.au site (www.example.com.au) for Australian visitors and a .com site for US visitors (www.example.shopify.com). The .com.au site has a lot of content while the .com site has little content, due to only recently starting business in the US and due to seasonal offerings. The client does not want US visitors to see the .com.au site. Se we set up an IP redirect, so users with a US IP address are directed to the .com site. This negatively and significantly effected our Google organic search rankings on https://www.google.com.au My question is what is best practice solution in this situation? thanks
Local SEO | | Paul170 -
SEO: Directory Listing Help with Two business locations in different states
Hello! I am in the process of building my second location, and will be moving to Nashville TN. My first location is located in ohio, and I am changing my primary location to nashville, but still want to keep my clients in Ohio... At least for the first year. As for directory building, what is the best option? 1.) Should I create two separate directory listings for each location and then direct www.domain.com to Nashville directory, and then www.domain.com/ohio-wedding-photographer/ to the Ohio listing in the directory? Or do you create one directory and mention I have offices in both Ohio and nashville? Is it bad to have two listings for each location if they have different addresses and phone numbers? Thank you!
Local SEO | | jean78780 -
Best Rank Tracking tool w/ data exports or APIs
I have briefly reviewed the API data available through the Moz API endpoints and did not see that the rank tracking data is available. I first wanted to confirm that? Second, I am looking to start tracking rank for nearly 1 million keywords (local pages multiplied by dozens of core keywords). I want to watch the rankings for a region move over time, as well as keywords generally, and then keywords in a region. My momentary initial research shows that there are a LOT of rank tracker tools, which felt a bit overwhelming to sift through them all and figure out which one would be best. My biggest needs are: handling lots of keywords and URLs exporting the data automatically (via an API or recurring export) allowing for localized results without having to qualify the keywords not breaking the bank to do so -- I'm not an SEO w/ multiple clients, these are all on 1 domain
Local SEO | | Mase0 -
PPC keywords and locations help
Hi. I have a client who is looking to target locations. In their PPC campaigns they have generic keywords such as web design but the campaigns are location based so Surrey, Kent etc... Would they be better to target UK wide but use localised keywords such as Web design surrey? Also in your view, is the Display Network worth it for a small business competing against cheaper/bigger services/companies? Any views be great. Thanks
Local SEO | | YNWA0 -
Home page with no content
Hi, I just want to know if there are any impact on seo ranking if my home page has no or less content, for example I only have a slider with my logo, slogan, navigation and my company info schema? Advance thanks for the help!
Local SEO | | bchilders220 -
Any Notable Change in Google's Location Based Results?
I've noticed with many of our clients that when searching for general terms, with obvious local intent, that Google assumes you are in the nearest metro area rather than the specific locality. Anyone else noticed this? Example: I have an HVAC client who has ranked a solid #1 for "HVAC Repairs" since January - if the user was in the small town we were targeting (Wake Forest) since January. However, now Google assumes users in this town are in the nearby metro area (Raleigh), and displays local and organic results for Raleigh instead of Wake Forest. I first noticed this change in mid-May. From what I've read about the Nov Hummingbird update, I don't see that playing a direct role. Any insight?
Local SEO | | Rusty_Shackleford0