• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. Local SEO
        4. Local Website Optimization
        5. How does duplicate content work when creating location specific pages?

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        How does duplicate content work when creating location specific pages?

        Local Website Optimization
        3
        6
        1656
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • mickburkesnr
          mickburkesnr last edited by

          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?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • mickburkesnr
            mickburkesnr @Marcus_Miller last edited by

            Totally agree, will keep that all in mind thanks 🙂

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Marcus_Miller
              Marcus_Miller @mickburkesnr last edited by

              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 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • mickburkesnr
                mickburkesnr @Marcus_Miller last edited by

                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!

                Marcus_Miller 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Toddfoster
                  Toddfoster last edited by

                  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

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Marcus_Miller
                    Marcus_Miller last edited by

                    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

                    mickburkesnr 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • 1 / 1
                    • First post
                      Last post

                    Browse Questions

                    Explore more categories

                    • Moz Tools

                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                    • SEO Tactics

                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                    • Community

                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                    • Digital Marketing

                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                    • Research & Trends

                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                    • Support

                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                    • See all categories

                    Related Questions

                    • Hanuman88

                      Geo-location by state/store

                      Hi there, We are a Grocery co-operative retailer and have chain of stores owned by different people. We are building a new website, where we would geo-locate the closest store to the customer and direct them to a particular store (selected based on cookie and geo location). All our stores have a consistent range of products + Variation in 25% range. I have few questions How to build a site-map. Since it will be mandatory for a store to be selected and same flow for the bot and user, should have all products across all stores in the sitemap? we are allowing users to find any products across all stores if they search by product identifier. But, they will be able to see products available in a particular store if go through the hierarchical journey of the website. Will the bot crawl all pages across all the stores or since it will be geolocated to only one store, the content belonging to only one store will be indexed? We are also allowing customers to search for older products which they might have bought few years and that are not part of out catalogue any more. these products will not appear on the online hierarchical journey but, customers will be able to search and find the products . Will this affect our SEO ranking? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Costa

                      Local Website Optimization | | Hanuman88
                      1
                    • Greenery

                      Service Area Location Pages vs. User Experience

                      I'm familiar with the SAB best practices outlined here. Here's my issue: Doing local landing pages as described here might not be ideal from a user experience point of view. Having a "Cities We Serve" or "Service Areas" link in the main navigation isn't necessarily valuable to the user when the city-specific landing pages are all places within a 15-mile radius of the SAB's headquarters. It would just look like the company did it for SEO. It wouldn't look natural. Seriously, it feels like best practices are totally at odds with user experience here. If I absolutely must create location pages for 10 or so municipalities within my client's service area, I'd rather NOT put the service areas as a primary navigation item. It is not useful to the user. Anyone who sees that the company provides services in the [name of city] metropolitan area will already understand that the company can service their town that is 5 miles away. It is self-evident. For example**, who would wonder whether a plumbing company with a Los Angeles address also services Beverly Hills?** It's just... silly. But the Moz guide says I've got to do those location pages! And that I've got to put them high up in the navigation! This is a problem because we've got to do local SEO, but we also have to provide an ideal experience. Thoughts?

                      Local Website Optimization | | Greenery
                      1
                    • SwanseaMedicine

                      Page optimisation score = 93, but rank on 2nd page?

                      So, one of my pages has an optimisation score of 93. The DA of the website is 74 and is lower than many of our competitors, but to rank 12th? Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions? All the images are under 100kb, but the page speed isn't great (not something I'm currently able to change). All alt tags are using variations of our keywords.

                      Local Website Optimization | | SwanseaMedicine
                      0
                    • donsilvernail

                      Multiple location pages are they bad?

                      Hello all, I am research some competitors of a client of mine. My client specializes in H.P. printer repair and over the last 8 years has lost market shares to the competition. I want to reclaim market share. As I was searching some of the service companies many have page that list multiple towns that they service. here is an example. http://printerrepairservice.com/locations-we-service/ Should I be recommending this to my client? To me it seems like a spam keyword process. I know an employee of this particular company and he say their online business is booming. I want my clients to boom too! What are your thoughts on these location type pages?

                      Local Website Optimization | | donsilvernail
                      0
                    • LittleDog

                      Should I open a new domain and website for a new location under one company?

                      Hi my name is Gina and I wanted to ask for some advice. I'm thinking opening a diff location and was thinking if its a good idea to open up a new domain and new website? And why that may be a good idea and why or a bad idea and why?

                      Local Website Optimization | | LittleDog
                      0
                    • MiriamEllis

                      How Google's Doorway Pages Update Affects Local SEO

                      Hey Awesome Local Folks! I thought I'd take a proactive stance and start a thread on the new doorway pages update from Google, as I feel there will be questions coming up about this here in the forum: Here's the update announcement: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/03/an-update-on-doorway-pages.html And here's the part that will make local business owners and Local SEOs take a second glance at this: Here are questions to ask of pages that could be seen as doorway pages: Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic? I think this will naturally lead to questions about the practice of creating local/city landing pages. At this point, my prediction is that this will come down to high quality vs. crummy quality pages of this type. In fact, after chatting briefly with Andrew Shotland, I'm leaning a bit toward seeing the above language as being strongly geared toward directory type sites and large franchises. I recommend reading Andrew's post about his take on this, as I think he's on the right track: http://www.localseoguide.com/googles-about-to-close-your-local-doorway-pages/ So, I'm feeling at this point that if you've made the right efforts to develop unique, high quality local landing pages, you should be good unless you are an accidental casualty of an over-zealous update. We'll see! If anyone has thoughts to contribute on this thread, I hope they will, and if lots of questions start coming up about this here in the community, feel free to link back to this thread in helping your fellow community members 🙂 Thanks, all!

                      Local Website Optimization | | MiriamEllis
                      9
                    • SarahCollins

                      How Best to do implement a Branch Locator for a Website with invididual location category pages

                      Hi All, We have an ecommerce Website with multiple locations for our stores and we currently display separate location specific pages for the different categories and sub categories. This has helped us previously to rank well for local search in each of the areas we have a store but over the last few months since humingbird, our local rankings on some things have dip a little . We want to implement a branch locator of some description to improve the user experience. From looking at other websites with branch locators, they tend to a separate button/page with which you can search for a branch etc. However, they don't have location specific pages. My query is should I do it so if  a user comes in on a specific category location page and follows it through to product page , then to have a tab on the product page displaying the local branch from which he can come in. My thinking here is that , is that it would help confirm my local citations and help improve local rankings. Or Should the local branch be displayed on the local category pages instead or as well ?. If a user comes in from the homepage or not on a specific location page, then the branch locator will allow them to search for a specific branch. Should I also put in a branch locator as a separate page or can It be in more places. I don't want to damage anything which may have an effect on rankings due to citations and NAP on the location specific pages. Any advice or good examples to look at would be greatly appreciated thanks Sarah.

                      Local Website Optimization | | SarahCollins
                      1
                    • kirmeliux

                      Single Site For Multiple Locations Or Multiple Sites?

                      Hi, Sorry if this rambles on. There's a few details that kind of convolute this issue so I'll try and be as clear as possible. The site in question has been online for roughly 5 years. It's established with many local citations, does well in local SERPs (working on organic results currently), and represents a business with 2 locations in the same county. The domain is structured as location1brandname.com. The site was recently upgraded from a 6-10 page static HTML site with loads of duplicate content and poor structure to a nice, clean WordPress layout. Again, Google is cool with it, everything was 301'd properly, and our rankings haven't dropped (some have improved). Here's the tricky part: To properly optimize this site for our second location, I am basically building a second website within the original, but customized for our second location. It will be location1brandname.com/secondcity and the menu will be unique to second-city service pages, unique NAP on footer, etc. I will then update our local citations with this new URL and hopefully we'll start appearing higher in local SERPs for the second-city keywords that our main URL isn't currently optimized for. The issue I have is that our root domain has our first city location in the domain and that this might have some negative effect on ranking for the second URL. Conversely, starting on a brand new domain (secondcitybrandname.com) requires building an entire new site and being brand new. My hunch is that we'll be fine making root.com/secondcity that locations homepage and starting a new domain, while cleaner and compeltely separate from our other location, is too much work for not enough benefit. It seems like if they're the same company/brand, they should be on the same sitee. and we can use the root juice to help. Thoughts?

                      Local Website Optimization | | kirmeliux
                      0

                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                    Start my free trial
                    Products
                    • Moz Pro
                    • Moz Local
                    • Moz API
                    • Moz Data
                    • STAT
                    • Product Updates
                    Moz Solutions
                    • SMB Solutions
                    • Agency Solutions
                    • Enterprise Solutions
                    • Digital Marketers
                    Free SEO Tools
                    • Domain Authority Checker
                    • Link Explorer
                    • Keyword Explorer
                    • Competitive Research
                    • Brand Authority Checker
                    • Local Citation Checker
                    • MozBar Extension
                    • MozCast
                    Resources
                    • Blog
                    • SEO Learning Center
                    • Help Hub
                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                    • How-to Guides
                    • Moz Academy
                    • API Docs
                    About Moz
                    • About
                    • Team
                    • Careers
                    • Contact
                    Why Moz
                    • Case Studies
                    • Testimonials
                    Get Involved
                    • Become an Affiliate
                    • MozCon
                    • Webinars
                    • Practical Marketer Series
                    • MozPod
                    Connect with us

                    Contact the Help team

                    Join our newsletter
                    Moz logo
                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                    • Accessibility
                    • Terms of Use
                    • Privacy

                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.