Marketing a multi-regional directory???

[inertia]

I have been asked to do some marketing work on a house rentals directory. These people want to start a directory which spans most of the major university cities in the North West of England and covers rentals in that area.

I realise that for them to get good SERPs under geographical keywords (e.g. "lettings in manchester", "lettings in liverpool") they will need to build good content and links which are relevant to each city, but my dilemma lies with trying to structure all of this under one domain name.

Now, they have registered domains for the cities which they are going to operate in, e.g. housing-manchester.co.uk, housing-preston.co.uk, housing-liverpool.co.uk etc. Should i setup separate domains focusing on each area, with the idea of those linking through to the main general directory site or would sub domains be better or should i put it all on the same url?

I guess what im trying to say is, whats the best way to structure a site which is trying to focus on a lot of different geographical keywords. phew!

[bj]

I think your idea of using separate domains for the regions, and a central site to tie them together would work. You might consider putting the central site on Wordpress blog software and using the rss feed widgets to feed in the newest listings from the other sites. You can then also blog some keyphrase rich content of a more general nature, along with some blogposts about the different regions.

I know you haven't asked, but if you haven't looked at directory software, you might take a fast look at the tolranet directory script. I've found it to be much better than the others out there, and has great spam filtering.

[Zombie Master]

We went through this when we launched an Irish County site in 2001 but didn't know it was going to go regional someday, Inertia. At least you have the foreknowledge of what is to come.

I don't think you have much of a problem. Make a landing page for each area with its own keywords. You will find, if the content is good, you will soon be ranking in the SERPS.

Good luck.

[Seminole386]

I let mine die because I because so successful selling real estate. You can look at the format Buyers Agent Directory - Buyers Agent Listings by Town and think of the states page as your landing page and connect each regional or city location from there. This site ranked in the top 50,000 for traffic before I got lazy and stopped collecting from the clients who advertised on it.

[jmcc]

Originally Posted by inertia

I guess what im trying to say is, whats the best way to structure a site which is trying to focus on a lot of different geographical keywords. phew!

Sit down and work out what people are searching for and how they search. Then develop an information architecture based on
area/city/county/postcode and have it accessible also by keyword.

The UK is very lucky to have a precise postcode system and you should make the most of it to build the structure. Limit the keyword searching to obvious terms such as short lets, flats, houses etc. Rather than use an off the shelf solution, it might be worthwhile to develop a database backend that makes storing such information easy. (Each property would be categorised in terms of area, city, postcode, type, price, minimum lease period etc.)

The biggest mistake that a lot of people building directories make is in giving the user too many options. That causes a lot of confusion. The trick is to limit the number of options while at the same time making the site more searchable in human terms.

Regards...jmcc

[jmcc]

Originally Posted by Zombie Master

We went through this when we launched an Irish County site in 2001 but didn't know it was going to go regional someday,

Which one?

Regards...jmcc

[thebigdishman]

It sounds as if they have taken the right approach with the multiple domain names but you are right also in bringing it all together for marketing purposes.

It's just a thought but a pay-per-click scheme is almost an essential here (remembering the demographics of the market), and in that respect I have to say that BT's Webclicks is an awesome proposition.

If you want to look at that route, let me know as I know someone with the company who deals with that product (not local to you), and he can put you in touch with the relevant local contact.

[FlatFeeKing]

Originally Posted by Seminole386

I let mine die because I because so successful selling real estate. You can look at the format Buyers Agent Directory - Buyers Agent Listings by Town and think of the states page as your landing page and connect each regional or city location from there. This site ranked in the top 50,000 for traffic before I got lazy and stopped collecting from the clients who advertised on it.

Are you saying that because you made this directory and it became successful, you generated more business as a realtor? IS that because people were contacting you through the directory, or because your real estate site just started to get so much traffic?