dominating a keyword on a national basis

there is a keyword for which the results depend on your location. so if I change my location in settings and google the same keyword, the results are completely different, it shows the offices that are close to that zip code.

For the purpose of this question, I will assume the keyword is "cheap florist"

I want to dominate this niche on a national level. so if someone in philadelphia googles "cheap florist" or "cheap florist Philadelphia" I want to show up. If someone in Dallas TX google "cheap florist" or "cheap florist dallas" I want to show up.

Should I have separate EMD sites for each city? for example cheapFloristDallas.net cheapFloristPhiladelphia.com

OR should I have one site cheapFlorist.net and then subdomain the different cities?

I personally want to do the second option because it would be easier to manage, but I think the first option is more likely to work. am I right?

You should try to rank for the keyword for every major city by creating separate pages for each city and doing SEO on them. Then, your site would show up on Google regardless the city in which you are accessing the web.

Check and see, dont use subdomains, use pages.

I use subdomains for that very purpose, and they continue to perform well.

tiagorossi said:

Check and see, dont use subdomains, use pages.

Click to expand...

so you mean I should do domain.com/chicago instead of chicago.domain.com ?

tony_d said:

I use subdomains for that very purpose, and they continue to perform well.

Click to expand...

you mean domain.com/chicago or chicago.domain.com ? is subdomain better than subpage?

nonai said:

you mean domain.com/chicago or chicago.domain.com ? is subdomain better than subpage?

Click to expand...

subdomain.domain.com is a subdomain.

I don't know whether subdomain is better than a page. I don't see that it would be. FWIW though, Cutts has said they're treated much the same way.

I would only do a subdomain if you actually had a brick and mortar location in each of the cities you are targeting. That way each office could manage their own subdomain and tailor it better to the city and its clients. If you are just based in one city but want to rank for others just go create a page for each city on your existing site. Do not just copy and paste the same content on each city page though make sure its unique.

Thanks guy. I found this:
http://moz.com/ugc/get-your-multilocation-business-ranking-in-multiple-cities-with-one-domain-21815

There is something that I am confused about. When adding the websites to google places, do I create multiple gmail accounts or just one?
for example, for domain.com/chicago and domain.com/dallas
do I need 2 gmail accounts or do they all go under one account?