Geographically specific subdomains vs. Google?

[trapper_joe]

Hi,
I am looking to expand my business into other cities. Currently, my site is:

elitewildlife.com

I would like to create subdomains for each city. For example:

denver.elitewildlife.com OR orlando.elitewildlife.com

Is this a good idea in terms of SEO? Can I get nailed by Google for duplicate content? Are there better ways to go about it?

[Test-ok]

I think you'd be better off using sub directories.
elitewildlife.com/Denver
elitewildlife.com/Orlando

[JennifferGrey]

maybe the content wont be a duplicate since, for sure, you'll have at least one difference for each site, right?

[trapper_joe]

Generally, I would agree on subdirectories, as the content allows the main directory to rank. However, geographical organization is the one area where I feel like subdomains make sense. Plus, I want the freedom to have a different static and dynamic content for each city. A subdirectory would not allow that as it's essentially one page.

Will google punish me for having SOME of the same static content with different city names? Not all will be the same but much will be similar.

[joshz]

Will google punish me for having SOME of the same static content with different city names? Not all will be the same but much will be similar.

Just write original content or hire somebody else to do so.

[trapper_joe]

Just write original content or hire somebody else to do so.

I totally get what you're saying. It's not that hard. However, a company values/policy page is going to be the same regardless of the city. Things like service area, the field blog, photos, employee profiles, etc. will not. Do you understand what I'm saying?

[joshz]

I totally get what you're saying. It's not that hard. However, a company values/policy page is going to be the same regardless of the city. Things like service area, the field blog, photos, employee profiles, etc. will not. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yup. I would be nervous to do so though. Why? Content scrappers. People steal content all the time and replace one name or company name with another (eg, like you would swap out city names), and get hit with duplicate content.

You can try it, but personally, I'd just write up new content and maybe talk about different city benefits/landmarks, etc. I'm not sure if that's possible with the context of your site, but that would be the safest bet.

Hopefully EGOL can chime in, he's great with content and SEO, let's see what others suggest. I could be totally wrong ;)

[trapper_joe]

Yup. I would be nervous to do so though. Why? Content scrappers. People steal content all the time and replace one name or company name with another (eg, like you would swap out city names), and get hit with duplicate content.

You can try it, but personally, I'd just write up new content and maybe talk about different city benefits/landmarks, etc. I'm not sure if that's possible with the context of your site, but that would be the safest bet.

Hopefully EGOL can chime in, he's great with content and SEO, let's see what others suggest. I could be totally wrong ;)

What if I have all the common stuff that doesn't change on the main site, elitewildlife.com and all the specific stuff on the subdomains for each city? Like for information on rats, there could just be a link to the main website with the info page?

Is that a smart or stupid thing to do?

[KernelPanic]

I totally get what you're saying. It's not that hard. However, a company values/policy page is going to be the same regardless of the city. Things like service area, the field blog, photos, employee profiles, etc. will not. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yes TrapperJoe we understand and we are telling you your strategy is an enormous waste of time. You will probably build your website with hundreds of identical pages and then come back here and ask "why aren't my pages ranking?"

Stick to trapping trapper joe, listen to the advice given above by SEO professionals.

[trapper_joe]

Yes TrapperJoe we understand and we are telling you your strategy is an enormous waste of time. You will probably build your website with hundreds of identical pages and then come back here and ask "why aren't my pages ranking?"

Stick to trapping trapper joe, listen to the advice given above by SEO professionals.

Yeah... that's the plan boss. I just want to expand my business to other cities and actually rank. That's why I'm here. I'm open to ideas. If it's a bad idea, present an alternative.

[trapper_joe]

By the way, the top company in my industry does this:

Animal Removal Services: Alligators, Squirrels, Raccoons, Birds, Bees & Wasps, Skunks, Bats: Orlando, FL

Animal Removal Services: Bats, Birds, Squirrels, Skunks, Raccoons, Rodents, Opossum, Gophers: Denver, Colorado

Google hasn't punished them.

[joshz]

By the way, the top company in my industry does this:

Animal Removal Services: Alligators, Squirrels, Raccoons, Birds, Bees & Wasps, Skunks, Bats: Orlando, FL

Animal Removal Services: Bats, Birds, Squirrels, Skunks, Raccoons, Rodents, Opossum, Gophers: Denver, Colorado

Google hasn't punished them.

And this is your competition? I wish he was mine. I would have reported in months ago.

My SEO competition steals clients money and runs. Should I?

Sometimes you can look to your competition for ideas to succeed and for ideas to avoid. This happens to be the latter.

I would use this to your advantage as an easy competition to overtake. I wish my competition was this stupid and lazy as yours.

Edit: Don't think of it as much as penalized. Think of it as they're possibly not being rewarded as highly as possible with original content. Just wait for the continuous Panda updates. Every dog has its day, this site will have its soon. Marie/Egol - wouldn't yall agree?

[trapper_joe]

I admit, it's pretty spammy. I've never spammed like that. They cram SOOOO many keywords and city names in it's unreal. Nonetheless, they CRUSH me in terms of web traffic. I'm working on a complete overhaul of my website to hopefully clean some things up and become very SEO friendly.

But let's get back to the question. What is the best way to "organize" my site by city? Subdomains or subdirectories?

Surely my competition isn't doing EVERYTHING wrong. Right?

[niravpatel]

I agree with the Test-ok.. You can optimize your landing page in below form.

elitewildlife.com/Denver
elitewildlife.com/Orlando

Nirav

[KernelPanic]

Yeah... that's the plan boss. I just want to expand my business to other cities and actually rank. That's why I'm here. I'm open to ideas. If it's a bad idea, present an alternative.

Alternative: Create unique, compelling text summarizing the types of nuisance animals one might find in each particular geo-target. Use nice photos of damage done by these animals and the potential risks involved with attempting to do the job yourself. Include testimonials if you have any.

Trapperjoe.com/stcloud

St Cloud Nuisance Animal Removal
St Cloud Florida, located in on the south shore of East Lake Toho is known for its natural beauty and its abundant wildlife. Unfortunately this wildlife often can encroach on man-made dwellings. We have sent our professional team of animal trappers in St Cloud to assist homeowners with squirrels in the attic, raccoons under the home, and bats in your belfrey. One St Cloud animal removal job involved the relocating lions and tigers and bears......

The above and one more paragraph would do it for St Cloud. Then do the same with DIFFERENT text for every city that you want to rank in. You could knock this out in a day. THEN get high quality links from relevant authority sites and BOOM! you got ranks.