Some companies offer services across various cities in a country. They are not multinational but they have their stores or offices in all the major cities of the nation. Now, what if such a company wants to create separate city specific pages on the website to target the local customers? I am sure that some of you reading this article must have the same question in your mind and today you will get the answers you were looking for so long.
Are city pages good or bad for SEO?
Google is very strict about web pages that don’t add value to the user experience. They released the Panda algorithm update a few years ago to penalize article spinning websites, doorway pages and any other website that had poor content. Unfortunately, city pages were also targeted by Panda due to poor content strategy applied by the webmasters.
Website owners have created city specific pages for many years and there is nothing bad about it. The crucial thing is that if you are offering the same service across all those cities, then you have to make sure that not all those pages have the same content, with just a few sentences altered to avoid Copyscape. Each web page must provide something unique to the visitors. It must not be the same information repeated in a different style.
How to make city pages SEO friendly?
- The first thing you need to do is prioritize the city pages you really want on your website. Suppose you have real estate business in South India. Now, there is no need to mention all the cities. You can create separate pages for Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and group small cities in one page to make customers aware of your existence.
- Write original content for each city. Find out what makes the city unique. For example, a real estate businessman can talk about the community of different cities where he sells his properties. Talk about the schools and hospitals in the vicinity of your apartment buildings as these are the things buyers really want to know before taking the final decision.
- You must make sure that the local web pages appear on all the different versions of the website. If you have a responsive website, then this might not be an issue; but if you have a separate mobile website to serve cell phone and tablet users, then the mobile website should feature all those city pages too. Otherwise, neither Google nor users will trust the authenticity of the website. Since Google is moving forward with a “mobile first” approach, missing web pages on the mobile website can be catastrophic.
Conclusion
If you do things correctly, city pages can truly boost your revenue and help you secure better local search rankings. Follow the guidelines mentioned above and you will have nothing to worry.
