Google's John Mueller was asked if it matters SEO-wise or search ranking-wise if you place /services/ before /location/ in your URL structure or the other way. John said when it comes to SEO, it really does not matter. It seems John is saying that the word location in a URL does not really matter much for SEO or search rankings.
The question was asked on Mastodon where Michael Baggelin asked John Mueller, "I realize today while research of company service and location in a combination at category structure. Always put /services/ before /location/ (site/service/location/) and bare in mind that location search might always differ on mobile search… automatically I would say ;) how about that?"
John Mueller replied, "I'm trying to think of where this could play a role, and I don't think there's anything on the SEO side where it would. I could see it being relevant for UX or marketing though, maybe users care more about "service" or "location" and seeing it faster in the URL helps them (in search, we don't show URLs that much, but they can see them in the browser bar). For SEO, we see URLs more as identifiers, with very few exceptions."
So yea, he said, "I don't think there's anything on the SEO side where it would" matter. He added that Google sees "URLs more as identifiers, with very few exceptions."
Here is a screenshot of the Q&A:
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
