Quick answer
Create a location page only for an area you genuinely serve, and give each one unique, useful content: real projects, local details, reviews, answers to local questions and a clear way to get in touch. Pages that only swap the town name are doorway pages, which Google treats as spam and which rarely rank.
Last updated: October 2026
If you serve several towns, location pages can win you searches such as “electrician in Leeds” or “accountant in Cardiff”. They are also one of the easiest places to go wrong. Many agencies generate dozens of pages with the same text and a different place name, and then wonder why none of them rank.
Google calls pages made mainly to rank for a place and funnel visitors onwards “doorway pages”, and its spam policies explicitly target them. The good news is that genuinely useful location pages are completely acceptable, and often perform very well.
This guide shows what separates the two, what a strong service area page contains, how many you actually need, how to structure them, and how to measure and improve them over time.
In this guide
- What a doorway page looks like
- When a location page is justified
- What a good location page contains
- How many pages do you really need?
- A worked example: an electrician serving three towns
- Structure, internal links and schema
- Writing unique content at scale
- Measuring and improving location pages
- A quick quality checklist
- FAQs
What a doorway page looks like
Doorway pages exist to capture search traffic for a place or phrase, offering little unique value of their own. Typical signs include near-identical copy with the town name swapped, dozens of pages for areas you do not really serve, vague text that could apply to anywhere, and links that simply push visitors to one page.
Google has been clear that this kind of scaling is spam. At best the pages get ignored. At worst they drag down the quality signals of the whole site. The test is simple: would a person in that town find the page genuinely useful, and could it only have been written by someone who serves that area?
When a location page is justified
A location page makes sense when you have a real presence or real customers in that area, when people there search for your service with the place name, and when you can say something genuinely specific. That might be a branch, regular service visits, local projects or local knowledge that affects the service.
If you cannot meet that bar, do not create the page. Mention the area on a broader page, or add it to a service area list, instead of publishing something thin.
What a good location page contains
- A clear statement of the service and the area you cover, with the main service in the heading.
- Local proof such as reviews, short case studies or photos from real jobs in that area.
- Information only an operator would know: typical property types, local regulations, travel times, common problems in the area.
- A map or service-area description, address if you have one, and prominent phone, form or booking options.
- FAQs answering questions people in that area genuinely ask.
- Links to the relevant service page and to nearby location pages.
How many pages do you really need?
Start with your core areas: the towns where you have the most customers or the greatest opportunity. Build those well, measure results, and expand only when you can add genuine content. A tightly built hub with a smaller number of strong city pages usually beats a sprawling set of hundreds of thin ones.
For multi-service businesses, avoid multiplying services by locations into thousands of pages. Prioritise the combinations that actually produce work, such as your top three services in your top five areas.
A worked example: an electrician serving three towns
Imagine a Leeds-based electrician who also works in Harrogate and Wakefield. A weak approach is to copy the Leeds page and replace the name. A strong approach starts with what is different in each place. In Harrogate, many customers may live in older period homes where rewiring and fuse board upgrades are common. In Wakefield, a higher share of work might be landlord safety certificates and new-build snagging.
The Harrogate page can feature a recent rewire with a photo, a short customer quote and a note about typical timescales and access in older properties. The Wakefield page can focus on EICR certificates, landlord obligations and quick turnaround. Both link to the main electrical services page, display the same trusted contact details, and carry FAQs reflecting each local audience.
Because each page carries information that only exists for that area, it satisfies the searcher and gives Google a reason to rank it. It is also easier to maintain: when a new job is completed in Harrogate, you add a photo and a review to that page rather than rewriting a template.
This same approach works for accountants, solicitors, dentists, cleaners and almost any service business. Start from what is genuinely different about the customers and the work in each place, and let the page grow from there.
Structure, internal links and schema
Use a hub page that lists all the areas you cover and links to each location page, such as our own locations hub. Link each location page back to the matching service page and across to neighbouring areas where it makes sense for the reader.
Add LocalBusiness or Service schema that reflects your real service area, and make sure your name, address and phone are consistent with your Google Business Profile. If you have a physical branch, give that location its own page with its own address, opening hours and map.
Keep URLs clean and predictable, for example /locations/leeds/, and make sure each page has a unique title tag and meta description that mentions the service and place naturally.
Writing unique content at scale
Uniqueness does not need to mean writing from scratch every time. A good process is to build a template for the structure, then fill each page with local facts. Interview the person who serves that area, collect photos and reviews from jobs there, and add local detail such as notable streets, landmarks or housing types where relevant.
Avoid generating pages with AI and publishing them unedited. Search engines are good at spotting pages that say nothing specific, and so are customers. Use any tooling to assist drafting, then have someone with real local knowledge check and enrich the result.
Measuring and improving location pages
Check Google Search Console for impressions, clicks and average position for each location page. Pages that get impressions but few clicks may need better titles. Pages with no impressions after a few months may be too thin, too similar to another page, or for an area with little search demand.
Merge weak pages into a stronger one using a 301 redirect, or improve them with real proof and local content. Our local SEO service and a website SEO audit can identify which location pages are helping and which are holding you back.
A quick quality checklist
- Do we genuinely serve this area?
- Does the page contain information that is true only for this area?
- Does it show real proof such as reviews or projects?
- Is there a clear call to action and contact route?
- Is it linked from a hub and from the right service page?
- Would we be happy for a competitor to read it?
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Frequently asked questions
Are location pages bad for SEO?
No. Thin, duplicated pages made only to capture searches are bad. Genuinely useful pages for areas you really serve are a standard and effective local SEO tactic.
Can I rank in a town where I have no office?
Often yes, for ordinary organic results, if you really serve the area and your page demonstrates relevance. Map pack rankings are harder without a nearby address, so focus on service-area content and reviews.
How long should a location page be?
Long enough to be genuinely useful and unique. That is typically several hundred to a thousand words, but quality and specificity matter far more than the word count.
Should I create a page for every postcode or small village?
Usually not. Group nearby small places into one useful area page, and reserve separate pages for towns and cities where you have customers and something specific to say.
