TOPIC: Question about multiple domain names

I'm getting my domains today and I'm trying to understand the concept of cities and domains.

Do I want a domain for my 5 cities pointing to a page in my site specific to that city?

Do I want that domain to also have my name in it?
    example: elkriverhomeinspections.com, or, righthomeinspectionselkriver.com?

Also, the "city specific" pages on my site, are they just duplicates of my home page with that city refrenced?  Do they go in the navigation menu, or, are they just behind the scenes?

Thanks!

I'm getting my URL (s) today and I'm trying to understand the concept of cities and URL's.

Do I want a URL for my 5 cities pointing to a page in my site specific to that city?

Do I want that URL to also have my name in it?
    example: elkriverhomeinspections.com, or, righthomeinspectionselkriver.com?

Also, the "city specific" pages on my site, are they just duplicates of my home page with that city refrenced?  Do they go in the navigation menu, or, are they just behind the scenes?

Thanks!

Do you mean URL path or domain name? Domain name can be whatever you want, but you may want one that is city specific + home inspector or inspection. ex. www.OrlandParkHomeInspections.com .

URL path should have the city+Home inspector or inspection, but it points to a page within your site and is usually something like this Palos-hills-home-inspector.html.

So that page on the site would read like this www.OrlandParkHomeInspections.com/Palos-...-home-inspector.html . The city page is not a duplicate, but original content you create and include your keywords and phrases.

The city pages can go in the navigation menu, but do not have to, but there should be a path for the search engines to be able to find them. You can use internal links on your site that would make it possible for visitors and SE's to find the page. You can list all the cities you serve on a home page and make the city a link to the page.

Sorry, I did mean domains!

Follow up, if the domains for the 5 cities are not all available, should I keep the same cities or revise the 5 cities to match 5 domains I can get?

Follow up, if the domains for the 5 cities are not all available, should I keep the same cities or revise the 5 cities to match 5 domains I can get?

How many websites are you trying to have? Usually it is one website for every 5 cities. You can have as many websites as you want. Pick the cities you want to serve, then choose the domain name. What state are you in? What city do you live in?

I'm in Elk River MN, a northwest suburb of Minneapolis.  Probem is, I could have 50+ city names within a 40 mile radius of home base.

What I'm thinking is, I would get more exposure if I had a domain for each of the 5 cities listed on my site that would direct searches using those city names to my main site.

Maybe I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be?