Home › Local SEO: what it covers and what to fix first
Location pages: what they are and when you need one
A location page is a page on your site about one place you serve: a shop, an office, or a town where you do jobs. It tells a visitor, with proof, that you work near them. People in the US search for "location pages" about 390 times a month. Related wordings include "location page seo" and "seo location pages".
This guide belongs to the local SEO overview. It covers when a business needs location pages, what goes on one, and what a finished plan looks like.
Location page, service area page and local landing page
The three terms are used loosely. These are the usual meanings.
- Location page. A page for a place where the business has a presence: a shop, a branch, an office. It carries a real address, hours and a phone number.
- Service area page. A page for a place the business travels to, with no shop there. About 40 searches a month in the US use that exact phrase. It carries proof of work done in the area, not an address.
- Local landing page. The broad term for any page built to meet a local search. Location pages and service area pages are both local landing pages.
Do you need location pages?
It depends on how you do business. This table matches the situation to the page.
| Your situation | What you need |
|---|---|
| One shop, customers come to you | One page for the shop, plus service pages |
| Several shops or branches | One location page per branch, each with its own details |
| No shop, you travel to customers | A service area page for each area where you really work |
| One shop and a few towns you also serve | One location page for the shop, one page covering the nearby towns |
| Online only | None; build service pages instead |
If your service pages are missing, build those first. A location page tells people where you work, but only a service page tells them what you do.
What a good location page holds
A location page earns its place only if it holds something true about that place. A good one contains:
- the address, or the area served, and a map;
- hours and a phone number that match your business profile;
- the services done there, each linked to its own service page;
- photos and a short account of recent jobs in that place;
- the people who work there;
- reviews from customers in that area;
- answers to questions customers in that place actually ask.
A simple test: swap the town name for another and read the page again. If it still reads true, it is a template, and it adds nothing for the reader.
A finished location page plan, as an example
The business below is invented: a plumbing company with a shop in one city and customers in two nearby towns.
| URL | H1 | What is on the page |
|---|---|---|
| /locations/riverton/ | Plumber in Riverton | Shop address and hours, team photo, five recent jobs with the street names left out, Riverton reviews, links to six service pages |
| /locations/oak-hills/ | Plumbing service in Oak Hills | The neighborhoods covered, the usual response time, three jobs done there, reviews from Oak Hills customers |
| /locations/lakeside/ | Plumbing service in Lakeside | The same layout, with Lakeside's own jobs, photos and reviews |
Each page links to the service pages and back to the main locations page. Each carries jobs that can only belong to that place. That is what makes three pages worth having instead of one.
SEO for a service area business
A service area business has no storefront that customers visit. A plumber, a roofer or a cleaner usually works this way. Local SEO for a service area business follows a few rules.
- Hide the business address in the profile and set the service area instead.
- Name only the towns you really work in. A list of forty towns is hard to back with proof.
- Back every named area with a page that shows work done there.
- Keep the phone number and name the same everywhere.
Service area pages are easy to copy, which is where mistakes start.
Mistakes with location pages
- Copying one page for every town and changing the town name.
- Making a page for a town where no job has ever been done.
- Using the address of a mailbox or virtual office.
- Writing the same headline "Best plumber in [town]" on every page.
- Leaving a location page with no link to the service pages.
- Building location pages before the service pages exist.
How many location pages should you build?
Build a page for a place only if you can fill it with something specific and true. That decides the number, not an SEO rule. Then look at the demand: how many people search for each service in your area, and which of those services your rivals already have a page for. The guide to local keyword research explains that demand. The competitor gaps page shows how a gap between you and your rivals reads.
To plan where the pages sit on your site, see website structure and the content plan guide.
Frequently asked questions
Do location pages help a service area business?
Yes, when each page proves real work in that area. Pages that only name a town do not help.
How many location pages is too many?
Too many is any number you cannot fill with true, specific content. A few pages with real content are worth more than many copies.
Can one page cover several towns?
Yes, for neighboring towns served from one base with the same services. List the towns you work in and show jobs from them.
Web designers who build these pages for clients can see what they receive before they plan a site.
Checked by a person and delivered within 24 hours, with a link and a search number behind every row.