How does duplicate content work when creating location specific pages?

[mickburkesnr]

In a bid to improve the visibility of my site on the Google SERP's, I am creating landing pages that were initially going to be used in some online advertising. I then thought it might be a good idea to improve the content on the pages so that they would perform better in localised searches.

So I have a landing page designed specifically to promote what my business can do, and funnel the user in to requesting a quote from us. The main keyword phrase I am using is "website design london", and I will be creating a few more such as "website design birmingham", "website design leeds". The only thing that I've changed at the moment across all these pages is the location name, I haven't touched any of the USP's or the testimonial that I use. However, in both cases "website design XXX" doesn't show up in any of the USP's or testimonial.

So my question is that when I have these pages built, and they're indexed, will I be penalised for this tactic?

[mickburkesnr]

Totally agree, will keep that all in mind thanks

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Michael

Yeah, it is possible to make landing pages work. These pages should really answer the questions the user provides and we have used this approach to supplement local visibility with many businesses - the real trick here is quality.

Ensure the page is high quality and avoid the temptation to just crank out hundreds of these with largely similar text.

Here is an example - you want business from London but are based in Birmingham. This page could outline how London is only an hour or so train journey from Birmingham and yet the price breaks you can offer over a London agency make using you a serious consideration. This speaks directly to that London customer and provides an angle for unique content. Then, bolster this with location specific reviews, testimonials, case studies etc etc to create a unique page and see how you get on.

For super competitive areas then you may need an additional push to get these pages to rank but you can always buy traffic and test and determine if the strategy is solid before doubling down on building some organic visibility.

At the end of the day it always comes down to quality - keep quality in mind at all times and all strategies have legs.

Hope that helps

Marcus

[mickburkesnr]

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for the answer. I've read the support page about Doorway pages and I think what I have is quite different, as it sounds as if these pages are designed to bring them further in to the website or duplicate content already on the website? The pages I have are just one paged landing pages that lets the user contact us on that same page (I think I may have used the wrong terminology in my question!). The landing pages aren't as word heavy as the other pages on my site either, they are more sales-centric instead of information centric.

But yeah I agree with your options because that's what I was thinking of doing to start with at least. I'm going to run some PPC campaigns with these landing pages but split test them with another layout and go from there in terms of on page conversions.

Thanks for your help!

[Toddfoster]

Hello Mick,

What you are describing here sounds like an on-page Silo to me. It will not generate any negative feedback from Google if you do it correctly. We actually recently instituted this strategy with a windows and doors company in the UK (windows & doors London, windows & doors Suffolk, windows & doors Ipswich, etc.) and have had tremendous results. Combined with a solid link-building campaign, they shot up the rankings to be #1 and have held it for over a year now. We have not seen any negative attention or penalties.

The upshot is that this tactic, if properly implemented, will generate significant ranking boosts alongside a decent link-building approach. You will do quite well if you are going after geo-specific keywords and you build your site architecture around them. I cannot vouch for individual pages put together piecemeal, however. The structure we put in place took about 2 months and was well-researched beforehand.

If you want, feel free to reach out and I would be happy to send along more advice regarding our process.

Hope this helps and best of luck with moving forward!

Rob

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Michael

Chances are you will pick up some kind of filtering around these pages. The use of the word penalty may make it sound heavier than it should do and really we may just see these pages pulled down so they don't return for the targeted phrases. Inn terms of classification they are what is known as a doorway page and whilst there are multiple components of the algorithm that target this kind of content the famous one is Panda

Doorway pages - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721311?hl=en

Some notes from that page:

• Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page
• Pages generated to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site(s)
• Substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy

I always find it useful to think about intent here and if you are based in Birmingham UK (so are we by the way so hello) and someone searches for 'web design birmingham' or 'web design hall green' then Google will tend to localise the results. This shows a pack of local results (3 pack now) and localised organic results where physical address weighs in. This makes it harder to rank these pages as you don't have the location signals but more importantly it illustrates the intent behind the search where folks are looking for a local business.

So, ranking these pages for locations like London without an address would be tough + they could send some low quality signals via Panda or other qualitative algorithm components. Then, even if they did rank, they may not convert the way you would like.

It is possible to work around this to some extent by creating truly authoritative pages that answer the need behind the query and why your company is a good fit. This involves getting inside your customers head and answering all the questions. I wrote about this in some detail here: http://searchengineland.com/local-seo-landing-pages-2-0-222583

Few options in my mind

1. Pick a few areas and create truly awesome pages and see how they do

2. Trial this with PPC and see how they do. If they pages don't convert at a rate that you can shovel traffic onto them then there may be better ways to spend your marketing time.

Hope that helps!

Marcus