Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some advice from people who have dealt with this firsthand.
We operate from one main location, but a noticeable portion of our leads and customers come from nearby cities where we don't have a physical office. Because of that, we're considering creating dedicated location pages for those areas, but I'm unsure whether it's the right move from an SEO perspective.
While researching a local SEO agency and reading different discussions online, I came across completely different opinions on this topic. Some people say location pages are perfectly fine if the content is unique and genuinely useful. Others argue that creating pages for cities where you don't have a physical presence can become a doorway-page issue if you're not careful.
What makes this confusing is that I regularly see businesses ranking in cities where they don't appear to have an office. At the same time, many SEO articles warn against creating location pages solely to target more keywords. It's difficult to know where the line is between a helpful service-area page and a page that Google may not view favorably.
We're not trying to create dozens of thin pages just to cover every nearby city. The goal would be to target locations where we already receive inquiries and actively serve customers. However, I'm not sure whether that alone is enough reason to build dedicated pages.
For those who have experience with this, how are you handling location pages for cities where you don't have a physical office?
Are those pages performing well in search results? Did you include local project examples, testimonials, service-area details, or other city-specific information to make them more useful? Have you experienced any indexing, duplication, or ranking issues after launching them?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have tested this on a real business website and can share actual results rather than general recommendations. If you've tried this strategy, what worked, what didn't, and would you take the same approach again?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
I'm looking for some advice from people who have dealt with this firsthand.
We operate from one main location, but a noticeable portion of our leads and customers come from nearby cities where we don't have a physical office. Because of that, we're considering creating dedicated location pages for those areas, but I'm unsure whether it's the right move from an SEO perspective.
While researching a local SEO agency and reading different discussions online, I came across completely different opinions on this topic. Some people say location pages are perfectly fine if the content is unique and genuinely useful. Others argue that creating pages for cities where you don't have a physical presence can become a doorway-page issue if you're not careful.
What makes this confusing is that I regularly see businesses ranking in cities where they don't appear to have an office. At the same time, many SEO articles warn against creating location pages solely to target more keywords. It's difficult to know where the line is between a helpful service-area page and a page that Google may not view favorably.
We're not trying to create dozens of thin pages just to cover every nearby city. The goal would be to target locations where we already receive inquiries and actively serve customers. However, I'm not sure whether that alone is enough reason to build dedicated pages.
For those who have experience with this, how are you handling location pages for cities where you don't have a physical office?
Are those pages performing well in search results? Did you include local project examples, testimonials, service-area details, or other city-specific information to make them more useful? Have you experienced any indexing, duplication, or ranking issues after launching them?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have tested this on a real business website and can share actual results rather than general recommendations. If you've tried this strategy, what worked, what didn't, and would you take the same approach again?
Thanks in advance for any insights.