Cant get my head around this duplicate content dilemma!

[activitysuper]

Hi,

Lets say you have a cleaning company, you have a services page, which covers window cleaning, carpet cleaning etc, lets say the content on this page adds up to around 750 words.

Now lets say you would like to create new pages which targeted location specific keywords in your area.

The easiest way would be to copy the services page and just change all the tags to the location specific term but now you have duplicate content.

If I wanted to target 10 locations, does this now mean I need to generate 750 words of unique content for each page which is basically the services page rewritten?

Cheers

[MiriamEllis]

That's great, Activitysuper,

Just stage the project in a reasonable manner. Your copywriter can't do it all at once, but he/she can do it over time. Good luck!

Miriam

[activitysuper]

Yeah I did find this very helpful, always good to know how someone has actually tackled this problem, it also reassures im not actually being silly and there is a better way of doing it.

Looks like unique for each page is the only way to go.

The only difference is I might add say 200 words for each page from start and then add 100 words more each month, I think this might make it easier to write more in each location.

I got a copywriter, which is half the battle done for me.

[MiriamEllis]

Thanks, Alan. Glad you found this helpful. I hope ActivitySuper will, too.

[loopyal]

Thank you Miriam, this is excellent advice, thank you for taking the time to do it. I wish I could give you 10 thumbs up!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi ActivitySuper!
Thanks for coming to Q&A with what is actually very important question.

I sympathize with your puzzlement here because I hear many local business owners saying the same thing - what am I supposed to write about?

Members here are giving you good advice - you've either got to be ready to make the effort/investment, or be satisfied with simply mentioning your services and locations and cross your fingers. If you are the only game in town, that might get you somewhere, but if you've got even 1 local competitor, such an approach will not lead to the dominance that you no doubt seek.

Here is what I do for my clients (some of who, coincidentally, are carpet cleaning companies!) This advice is given with the understanding that, like most business owners in the cleaning industries, you have one actual physical location but serve within a variety of neighboring cities. If that's correct, read on. If that isn't correct and you've got multiple physical offices, let me know.

1. Implement the major local hooks on the website for the physical location - Google is always going to see you as most relevant to your city of location, not other cities within the service radius. In addition to doing the on-site Local SEO, get the business properly listed with a violation-free Google Place Page and other local business directory listings.

2. Create a list of your 5-10 main services. Make a menu on the site of a page for each of these services, optimized for the services + your city of location. The content must be good, strong and unique.

3. Create a list of your 5-10 main service cities. Create a city landing page for each of these cities (including your city of location) creating an overview of your work in each city on each page. Make a menu of these pages on the site. Again, the content must be good, strong and unique. No cutting and pasting!

At this point you will have developed 10-20 pages of unique, creative content for your website. Depending on the competitiveness of your industry in your region, this may get you enough rankings to satisfy you and get phones ringing. However, in most cases, you will want to do more. Move on to step 4.

4. Now, create a big list of all possible combinations. This might look like:

Carpet Cleaning City A
Carpet Cleaning City B
Carpet Cleaning City C
Window Cleaning City A
Window Cleaning City B
Window Cleaning City C
Tile and Grout Cleaning City A
etc.

Create a timeline for beginning to write articles over a set number of months to cover each of these phrases. You're not going to do this all at once. My clients have most typically requested that I do anywhere from 3-10 articles a month for them. A blog is terrific for this sort of thing, by the way. If the client has hired me to do 10 articles a month, in 3 months, we've covered 30 terms, in 6 months, we've covered 60 terms, etc.

The client has to participate in this. If he simply paid some penny copywriter to write a bunch of boring, generic content for this large number of terms, chances are, he wouldn't end up with a very pleasant or persuasive website. Rather, he needs to be photographing his projects in the different cities and coming to me with photos, testimonials from clients in the service cities, anecdotes and what have you. I take this, combine it with a solid knowledge of the city and the service/products used, find some other photographs and maybe maps and turn each article into a very solid piece of content. The approach is quite authentic and results in the ongoing creation of an ever-growing library of content about the client's work in each of his cities.

Remember, the whole point of this approach is to obtain secondary visibility (typically organic) for terms outside of his city of location. It should be seen as an ongoing project, and I've seen this approach work time and again for my clients.

You're at an important point of decision right now. You need to decide if you have the creativity and time to do this right on your own, hire a Local SEO-skilled Copywriter to do it for you or if you just can't do either. Sincerely wishing you luck!
Miriam

[Vizergy]

I agree, Alan.  No matter how hard you try it is going to carry some level of dup - you would be better off trying to target all 10 locations on the main services page than trying to re-spin the same 750 words.  Your first suggestion is the approach I would take as well.

[loopyal]

What you just said is only true if you have nothing to write about.

I should have made it clear that I only advocate doing that if you have something to say that is meaningful.

If you don't, then don't do it - If you have something relevant and useful to say, it is better than repeating the same information, whether you rewrite it or not.

Spinning the 750 word story into 10 different versions is a really bad idea, in my opinion.

[activitysuper]

Yeah that is a option but your now looking at creating semi-relevant content (that's even if you can find something to write about for each location that is semi-relevant).

But your reply is an option so thanks.

[loopyal]

Only if you want them to be indexed.

Alternatively, you can write 150 to 200 words that apply specifically to the location and link off to the original page with 750 words of stunning content.

For example, here is an idea:

_ Window Cleaning and Carpet Cleaning in Murfreesboro _

Murfreesboro and surrounding areas sometimes presents a problem for carpet cleaners, because of the high incidence of termites. These termites..... blah blah blah.

....

Our Murfreesboro carpet cleaning crews are all locals, so they have an intimate knowledge of ... blah blah blah.

....

Read about how our carpet cleaning service fits your unique needs.