Question

What is your thought on city pages for service area businesses?  

Answer 1

I have our content team utilize a specialized formula to develop local service pages that crush it. I'll try to do a writeup when I get a chance. But to answer your question, they absolutely work and are a critical component for local service-based businesses in any niche.  

Comments

@scorpaenoid1795 Yes please

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@scorpaenoid1795 wow. Thanks for the willingness to share Jesse. That is awesome would love to see it.  

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I also would be appreciative to see your insights @scorpaenoid1795

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@scorpaenoid1795 if you're doing a write up would love to read it, thanks for sharing bud.  

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Would be nice to see a writeup about that specialized formula. :)

Answer 2

Curious to see people’s responses to this question and how the url layout would be.  

Answer 3

I’ve had great success with this.  

Comments

@oxymoron74 Thanks Cory. Any best practices your willing to share?  

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@export sure, but it’s pretty straightforward. Just like ranking any other page. URL structure: /keyword-city (although I’ve seen and heard of people using /keyword/city, /city/keyword, /keyword/keyword-city) Meta tags (title, headers, description, etc. ) should all include keyword + city or city + keyword. Make sure the content density is adequate. Links to the city pages on the Home page (navigation or footer). I usually throw a significant landmark or skyline of that city as a header image so it feels more authentic when someone lands on it.  

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@oxymoron74 do you build citations for every city landing page even tho the SAB has only one physical adress?  

Answer 4

Yes. /keyword-city works well, as does /keyword/city . Create Service Areas page and link from main menu and/or footer menu.  

Comments

@poleax Thanks Joe. Any other tactics or type of content you like to include on the city pages?  

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@export I try to rank one city/geo page, then after that page shows up well enough duplicate content and create a few more. Eventually you may need to tweak each page so it’s not all duplicate content. Start slow and don’t try to attack every city in your state.  

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@export Mention some things the town/city may be known for to customize them a bit.  

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@poleax great info. Thanks Joe.  

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@export No problem. There’s many ways of doing service area pages but they definitely work. I’m still testing different methods myself.  

Answer 5

My directory site makes enormous use of this. And by enormous I mean thousands of pages tackling different elements of it. Just approach it like any other page - provide genuine value. If you can't the page probably shouldn't be there.  

Answer 6

Absolutely necessary. Doing yourself/your client a disservice without it. Also sub pages branching off the city pages as well.  

Answer 7

Just make sure to add unique content on each page to avoid the doorway page penalty. Lots of ways to do that, not just in terms of "essay content", perhaps engineers in that area, average prices for that area, nearby locations, map embeds etc.  

Answer 8

Can you create 1 service area page? Write an article that states the cities you serve and will that page rank for multiple cities/towns? Right now I have /servicearea/city mentioning the services i offer linking back to service pages. So I'm ranking for service+city. I find it hard to optimize the content with surferseo because the page is ranking for several services in city. Is there a better way to do this?  

Comments

@suzerainty I think it would be better IMO to do individual pages.  

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Make a page for each city. Google will rank a page going for a specific KW. So your 1x page trying to canvass multiple areas will be weak against a competitor