When your business expands, so should your website

The website above for EcoTek Termite and Pest Control’s Manassas, Va. location is similar to but different from, the website for EcoTek’s headquarters location in North Carolina. PHOTO: EcoTek Termite and Pest Control

There comes a point when owners of successful pest control companies realize they are at a critical juncture: Is it time for a second location, either by opening a branch or selling a franchise? If the answer is yes, they have many decisions to make as a result — not the least of which is expanding their company’s online presence.

Expanding by branch

For those who want to expand as a single entity, you’ll want to set up local pages categorized according to the new states or markets you’re adding. You can accomplish this by simply having a parent page that identifies the new area with subpages that are part of the new geographic group. For purposes of illustration, let’s say the fictitious Houston, Texas-based XYZ Pest Control has expanded to the Dallas and Fort Worth markets. While these URLs are imaginary, they should give you an idea of how subpages and parent pages work:

⦁ XYZPestControl.com/texas is the parent page with overviews and links to local service pages.

⦁ XYZPestControl.com/texas/dallas-pest-control is the Dallas-centric local page with product and service information.

⦁ XYZPestControl.com/texas/fort-worth-pest-control is the Fort Worth-centric local page with product and service information.

The primary benefit of this type of structure is that most backlinks will point to the main page of the website/domain. The flow of the link equity can filter down to the location pages, and thus provide their own page authority.

Expanding by franchise

Franchises are a little different. In this case, you should decide whether you want to provide the subpage for an entire state, which is not recommended, or individual market areas defined by either county or metropolitan area. Keeping with our ever-expanding XYZ Pest Control example, we’ll go with the county. But instead of using folders when you’re expanding your own territories, you’ll use what is known as a subdomain. It will be a rewritten version of your main site, but will list the county as the subdomain, and a path to the local service pages for locations within the franchised area:

⦁ TarrantCounty.XYZPestControl.com/service-areas is the parent page, with overviews and links to local service pages within Tarrant County, Texas.

⦁ TarrantCounty.XYZPestControl.com/service-areas/dallas-pest-control is the local page with Dallas-centric product and service information.

⦁ TarrantCounty.XYZPestControl.com/service-areas/fort-worth-pest-control is the local page with Fort Worth-centric product and service information.

The benefit of using a subdomain as opposed to selling franchisees new domains that simply include the brand name (a la XYZPestControlFortWorth.com) is that a subdomain can actually still benefit as an established domain without starting from scratch. There is no need to endure a long wait for it to build its own level of trust and authority with search engines.

from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2018/09/21/when-your-business-expands-so-should-your-website/
Sacramento CA