Many websites try to rank in different towns by creating dozens of pages like "Plumber in Kandy", "Plumber in Galle", "Plumber in Matara", each with the same text and a different town name. Google calls these doorway pages, and they rarely rank for long. Here's how to build local pages that genuinely deserve to rank.
Two kinds of local pages
- Branch pages: for a physical location customers visit
- Service-area pages: for towns or regions you serve without a local office
Branch pages are straightforward, as long as each contains real, specific information. Service-area pages need more care, because you have to show genuine local relevance without a physical presence.
What makes a local page worth ranking
Ask yourself: if a customer from that town read this page, would they learn something they couldn't learn from any other location page on your site? If not, the page is thin.
Good local pages include:
- Specific local details: areas covered, travel times, local landmarks, parking, transport
- Local proof: projects completed in that area, photos, client stories, reviews from local customers
- Local differences: prices, services or timings that vary by location
- Local team: the people who serve that area
- Local questions: what customers in that town actually ask
A structure that works
- H1 with service and place: "Solar panel installation in Kurunegala"
- Intro: who you serve there and why choose you
- Services available in that area
- Areas covered: nearby towns and suburbs
- Local projects or examples, with photos
- Reviews from customers in the area
- FAQs specific to that location
- Contact details, map and a clear call to action
Don't create pages for places you don't serve
Only create a page for a town if you genuinely serve it and can say something specific about it. Ten strong pages beat fifty thin ones. If you can't write more than a paragraph about a place, mention it in a list of areas covered on a regional page instead.
Technical details
- One page per location, with a clear, consistent URL like
/seo-kandyor/branches/kandy - Unique title and meta description for each page
- LocalBusiness or Service structured data with the right location
- Internal links from a locations hub page and from related service pages
- Embedded map for branch pages
How we approach location pages
On this site, each city page, such as SEO in Colombo, SEO in Galle and SEO in Jaffna, describes how search actually works in that area, which neighbourhoods we cover and how we work with businesses there. They are written individually, not generated from a template.
Measure each page
In Search Console, filter the Performance report by page to see which searches each location page appears for. If a page gets impressions but no clicks, improve the title. If it gets no impressions at all, it may need more unique content or more internal links.
Location pages are a core part of local SEO. For branch networks, see SEO for multi-branch businesses.