Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Julius Park on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 06/26/2014).

Website structure for a local business with multiple locations?

How would you structure the web presence for a local business with multiple locations?  For example, would you recommend having an individual website for each business or having one main website with pages or subdomains for each of the locations? Which is easier to rank??
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Julius Park: How would you structure the web presence for a local business with multiple locations?  ;For example, would you recommend having an individual website for each business or having one main website with pages or subdomains for each of the locations? Which is easier to rank?
  • Bryan Mull: One main website with location pages.
  • Ryan Cramer: It's one of those word problems from 5th grade math that we all hate:

    Johnny has a small business selling fruit. He sells oranges, apples, pears, bananas, grapes, strawberries, and pomegranates. What percentage of Johnny's fruit stand sells apples?  ;

    Answer: 14.3%

    Sally has a small business selling fruit, too!  ;She sells oranges, apples, pears, bananas, grapes, strawberries, and pomegranates. She employs six of her friends to help her run the business and each sells a different fruit.  ;If Michelle is the friend who sells apples, what percentage of Michelle's fruit stand sells apples?

    Answer: 100%

    The point is, Google isn't interested in branding, they are interested in relative results.  ;If 14% of your domain is related to the desired location, you will always be outranked by someone who is 100% about that location/product.  ;Every algorithm change has been made to make this a reality, especially Panda 4.0. ;

    Managing multiple domains may be a little harder, but it is well worth the investment
  • Jackson Ertel: Can't say I agree +Ryan Cramer. I have seen many sites with locally targeted pages outrank specialized local sites.
    Domain authority and other factors can influence just as much as hyper local content, so if a domain has strong quality content and local targeted pages the overall effect can be just as powerful if not more so.

    Splitting content across sites makes it much harder to build authority, as each domain must gain authority within the industry.
  • happysus sait: I like this question. Any real example.
  • Edwin Jonk: +Ross Marchant ;self-promotion is not appreciated on this community. ;
  • Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 02:25:09 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/website_structure_for_a_local_business_with_multiple_locations +Julius Park

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  • Julius Park: Thanks for the help.  ;

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 06/26/2014).

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