Local
Location page SEO: pages that rank without getting filtered.
Location pages target searches for your service in a specific place. Done well, they're how a business ranks across the areas it serves. Done as city-name swaps, they're doorway pages Google filters out, and a signal to customers that you didn't think about their market. The difference is substance.
In short
A location page earns its place with genuine local substance, real services, real areas, honest presence, not a city-name swap. Build one only where you truly serve the area and have something specific to say. Thin location pages get filtered and can drag the whole site down.
What a location page is for
A location page targets your service plus a place. 'roof repair Sherwood Park,' 'accountant in Burnaby.' It's how you compete in the organic results for areas you serve. The key word is serve: a location page should exist because you genuinely do business there, not because the URL might catch a search.
Why the template approach fails
The standard play is a page for every town within driving distance, each identical except the place name. It's cheap, it looks like coverage, and Google has filtered it for years as the doorway content it is. Worse, a customer who reads 'we proudly serve your city' with nothing specific sees straight through it. Thin location pages don't just fail to rank. They can drag on the whole site.
What makes a location page real
Genuine local substance. If the only difference between two of your location pages is the city name, one of them shouldn't exist:
- A genuine reason you serve that area.
- Specific local detail: neighbourhoods, conditions, considerations.
- The actual services offered there, not a generic list.
- Honest presence. Don't imply an office you don't have.
- Real proof where you have it; national proof, clearly labelled, where you don't.
How many location pages should you have
Only as many as you can fill with genuine substance. A business with three real premises has three location pages; one office serving a wide region needs service-area pages, not a page per suburb. Fewer real pages beat a network of thin ones every time.
Related questions
Quick answers.
Can I have a location page for a city I don't have an office in?
In the organic results, yes. If you genuinely serve that area and the page has real substance about your work there. What you can't do is fake a physical presence for the map pack, or imply an office you don't have. Serve it honestly, and the page can rank.
How is a location page different from a service page?
A service page targets the service broadly; a location page targets that service in a specific place. They work together. The service page owns the general term, location pages own the geographic variants where you genuinely operate.
Google is filtering my location pages. Why?
Almost always because they're too similar. City-name swaps with no genuine local substance. That's the doorway pattern Google filters. The fix is real, differentiated content per page, or fewer pages that each earn their place.
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