Location Pages and Duplicate Content and Doorway Pages, Oh My!
-
Google has this page on location pages. It's very useful but it doesn't say anything about handling the duplicate content a location page might have. Seeing as the loctions may have very similar services.
Lets say they have example.com/location/boston, example.com/location/chicago, or maybe boston.example.com or chicago.example.com etc.
They are landing pages for each location, housing that locations contact information as well as serving as a landing page for that location. Showing the same services/products as every other location. This information may also live on the main domains homepage or services page as well.
My initial reaction agrees with this article: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide - but I'm really asking what does Google expect? Does this location pages guide from Google tell us we don't really have to make sure each of those location pages are unique? Sometimes creating "unique" location pages feels like you're creating **doorway pages - **"Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed to rank for specific queries like city or state names".
In a nutshell, Google's Guidelines seem to have a conflict on this topic:
Location Pages: "Have each location's or branch's information accessible on separate webpages"
Doorway Pages: "Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed to rank for specific queries like city or state names"
Duplicate Content: "If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one."Now you could avoid making it a doorway page or a duplicate content page if you just put the location information on a page. Each page would then have a unique address, phone number, email, contact name, etc. But then the page would technically be in violation of this page:
Thin Pages: "One of the most important steps in improving your site's ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content."
...starting to feel like I'm in a Google Guidelines Paradox!
Do you think this guide from Google means that duplicate content on these pages is acceptable as long as you use that markup? Or do you have another opinion?
-
Thanks for the comment Laura!
I was aware of the fact duplicate content wasn't the issue, but it just baffled me that this very obvious black-hat tactic wasn't punished by Google in any way. Even though their guidelines clearly stated doorway pages are a big "no-no".
Let's hope the December 2017 update has a noticeable impact
Have a nice day!
-
The Panda filter is just that, a filter. It doesn't remove pages from the index, and you won't get a manual penalty because of it.
In the case of duplicate content, Google chooses the most relevant or original content and filters out the duplicates. On the other hand, when a website has multiple pages with the same content, that can affect the overall quality of the entire website. This can affect search performance as well.
Then there's the issue of doorway pages, which are duplicate pages created for the purpose of funneling visitors to the same destination. This goes against Google's guidelines, and they confirmed a December 2017 algorithm update that affects sites using doorway pages.
-
Hi Laura,
It seems like this age-old black-hat tactic still works though. Maybe only outside of the US? Check out this SERP: https://www.google.be/search?q=site:trafficonline.be+inurl:seo-&ei=Z0RnWqHED47UwQLs5bkQ&start=0&sa=N&filter=0&biw=1920&bih=960&num=100
You don't have to understand the language to see that this is almost the same identical page, purely setup to rank well for localized terms (city names). Each page has the same exact content but uses some variables as to not have the exact same text: nearby city names, a Google Map embed, and even some variables for the amount of people living in a city (as if that's relevant information for the user). The content itself is really thin and the same for all cities.
The crazy thing is this site ranks well for some city names in combination with their keywords, even though it's very clearly using black-hat SEO tactics (doorway pages) to manipulate rankings for localized search terms. I would think websites that so blatantly violate the Google Guidelines would be completely removed from the search index, but that definitely isn't the case here.
Any thoughts as to why sites like this aren't removed for violating Google's terms and conditions? Or how I could keep telling our clients they can't use black hat tactics because Google might remove them from the index, even though it appears the chance of such a removal is almost non-existent?
Thanks in advance,
Kind regards -
Some great ideas: Content Creation Strategy for Businesses with Multiple Location Pages
-
Yeah it seems like the best logical answer is that each location page needs unique content developed for it. Even though it still kinda feels a little forced.
Goes to show you that Google has really pushed SEO firms to think differently about content and when you have to do something just for SEO purposes it now feels icky.
Yes creating unique content for that page for that location can be seen as useful to the users but it feels a little icky because the user would probably be satisfied with the core content. But we're creating unique location specific content mostly to please Google... not the user.
For example what if Walmart came to this same conclusion. Wouldn't it be a little forced if Walmart developed pages for every location that had that locations weather, facts about the city, etc?
Due to it's brand it's able to get away with the thin content version of location pages: http://www.walmart.com/store/2300/details they don't even use the markup... but any SEO knows you can't really follow what is working for giant brand like Walmart.
-
In response to the extra landing pages, our key thing for our business following on from the above comments is to remember that fresh and unique content is best.
We have spent a lot of money on our websites as well as clients in building extra pages, what we do is have a plan. For example if we have 30 pages to add, we spread this over a period of weeks/months. Rather than bashing them all out together. We do everything in a natural organic manner.
Hope this helps, it is our first post!
-
Welcome to my hell! I have 18 locations. I think it's best practice to have a location page for each location with 100% original content. And plenty of it. Yes, it seems redundant to talk about plumbing in Amherst, and plumbing in Westfield, and plumbing in...wherever. Do your best and make the content valuable original content that users will find helpful. A little local flair goes a long way with potential customers too and also makes it pretty clear you're not spinning the same article. That said, with Google Local bulk spreadsheet uploads, according to the people I've spoken with at Google, your business description can be word for word the same between locations and it won't hurt your rank in the maps/local packs one bit. Hope this helps!
-
These do appear to be contradictory guidelines until you understand what Google is trying to avoid here. Historically, SEOs have tried to rank businesses for geo-specific searches in areas other than where a business is located.
Let's say you run a gardening shop in Atlanta and you have an ecommerce side of the business online. Yes, you want to get walk-in traffic from the metro Atlanta area, but you also want to sell products online to customers all over the country. Ten years ago, you might set up 50 or so pages on your site with the exact same content with the city, state switched out. That way you could target keywords like the following:
- gardening supplies in Nashville, TN
- gardening supplies in Houston, TX
- gardening supplies in Seattle, WA
- gardening supplies in San Francisco, CA
- and so on...
That worked well 10 years ago, but the Panda update put a stop to that kind of nonsense. Google understands that someone searching for "gardening supplies in Nashville, TN" is looking for a brick and mortar location in Nashville and not an ecommerce store.
If you have locations in each of those cities, you have a legitimate reason to target the above search queries. On the other hand, you don't want to incur the wrath of Google with duplicate content on your landing pages. That's why the best solution is to create unique content that will appeal to users in that location. Yes, this requires time and possibly money to implement, but it's worth it when customers are streaming through the door at each location.
Check out Bright Local's recent InsideLocal Webinar: Powerful Content Creation Ideas for Local Businesses. They discussed several companies that are doing a great job with local landing page content.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Which are the best off-page SEO techniques for 2020?
I have just published an awesome website or blog, and i really worked hard keeping everything perfect. Do you think it’s enough? Having a perfect blog, website or business is just enough. i need readers for my blog, visitors to my website, and customers for my business. So, what to do?
Local Website Optimization | | boxinghunter0 -
Using posts to make static pages - A best practice or a bad idea?
I have started working with a few law firms this year. They already have websites and I am doing various marketing tasks such as copywriting, redesigns, and, of course, SEO. In a couple of cases I was surprised to find that they had made the pages describing their various practice areas post content. I'm not sure why. But I suspect that the idea might have been to have the phrase: /practice-areas/ as a part of their URL. I didn't really like the idea of treating pages like posts. It seems a bit like working the system. But apart from that, wouldn't pages have a higher value as "permanent" content? As posts - their publish date has more weight, right? And they'd get old? But maybe the previous developers were on to something and the category/post approach to listing practice areas is the way to go? I am starting a new site for a new firm and I'd like to feel more confident about the right structure to choose for this kind of website before I start. Does anybody know the right answer? Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | Dandelion1 -
Mysterious Location Based SERP Disappearance
Hi Everyone, I've got a bit of a confusing SEO issue which I'm hoping you'll be able to help with. Apologies in advance for the long post, I've put an abridged version below also. We have one main keyword and it seems to have disappeared in some locations. The main keyword is "clothing manufacturers" and up until recently we had stability for almost a year. We're based in London, England and we regularly check "clothing manufacturers" to see where we're showing in search, and we usually see between 3rd - 5th. We use AHREFS to track rankings and noticed recently that "clothing manufacturers" had disappeared totally. We asked some people in different areas of the country to check where we were showing in search - one in Somerset, one in Liverpool, one in Beckingham and we used a VPN in Manchester. In all of these areas we aren't ranking for our main keyword at all. In London though we're 5th which is the lower end of normal. We then checked other keywords and it turns out "Clothes manufacturers" is one we're also not ranking for outside of London. However for "clothing manufacturers uk" and "clothes manufacturers uk" we are ranking for in every location we have tried. "Clothing manufacturers uk" is currently the keyword which brings us the most traffic. There are no manual penalties in webmaster tools, but looking at analytics it looks like our impressions for the main keyword have been down over the past 90 days, so we think we have had a problem and not realised for some time. Around a week before we see that our traffic for "clothing manufacturers" dropped, we made some structural changes to the website homepage, where we added LSIs, more H2s, more long tail keywords and more content, taking the copy from around 500 words to around 1100 words. This was in an effort to make the homepage less keyword stuffed and more natural. As a result of this we saw an overall increase in traffic and enquiries, and that's the reason we didn't notice for so long that traffic from "clothing manufacturers" has dropped so badly. Our first thought is that this might be something to do with Schema. Our website was until last week using a schema which included our "postal address" which is our physical office location in London. The schema was implemented in June 2017 and we have noticed that 3 months after implementing the schema, in October, our traffic fell dramatically for our main keyword, "clothing manufacturers". At the same time, our traffic for "clothing manufacturers uk" increased dramatically. Interestingly, the schemas used by our competitors don't include their office addresses and they show up all over the country for "clothing manufacturers" and "clothes manufacturers". One of our competitors is physically within half a mile of us. Have you guys seen a schema limit a company to searches only in one locality before? We have now removed the address from the schema to see if we start ranking all over the country again, like we used to before we implemented it. If this is the problem then it could take 3 months to turn around like it did for us to get in to this situation (Schema implemented June 2017, traffic fell October 2017). We're therefore trying to investigate every possibility to ensure we leave no stone unturned. Do you have any thoughts on the problem and if it could be schema related, or possibly something else? Thank you in advance! TL:DR Keywords "clothing manufacturers" and "clothes manufacturers" no longer ranking around the UK. Still ranking in London where we are based. Still ranking well for "clothing manufacturers uk" and "clothes manufacturers uk". Traffic for "clothing manufacturers" dropped 3 months after implementing schema and one week after making changes to website homepage (increased word count, added long tail keywords, LSIs and H2s). Schema included "postal address" which we notice none of our competitors have. They rank all over the country for "clothing manufacturers". One of our competitors is based within half a mile of us in London. Could having the address in the schema limit us to one locality? Could it be something else entirely?
Local Website Optimization | | rswhtn0 -
I can't get my page to rank. What am I doing wrong?
I'm new to this forum and this is my first question. So if I'm not supposed to ask this type of question, please forgive me. I'm trying my best to get http://www.westcoastflenterprises.com/#!roofing/bbb1e to rank on the first page in Google for "roofing contractors" in the following SW Florida cities: "Naples, Bonita Springs, and Fort Myers." Our company has a physical address in Fort Myers only so I understand it's going to be harder to get it to rank for Naples and Bonita Springs. But I can't even get this page to rank well for "roofing contractors in Fort Myers." The page authority is 25 and our domain authority is 27. Our home page authority is 39. Our primary category in Google is building restoration & preservation. But we have divisions in our company: Roofing Concrete Ornamental metals I would love it if our roofing page could rank higher than the third page, which is where it currently sits. I worked really hard to get each of our roofing-material manufacturers to link directly to our roofing page, not the home page. My hope is that you can help me because I'm really discouraged. Thanks in advance.
Local Website Optimization | | Jason_Taylor0 -
Community Discussion - What are your experiences creating local landing pages?
Hi there, Moz Community! In Tuesday's post on the Moz Blog, "Overcoming Your Fear of Local Landing Pages," Miriam Ellis asks: When tasked with developing a set of city landing pages for your local business clients, do you experience any of the following: brain fog, dry mouth, sweaty palms, procrastination, woolgathering, or ennui? Then chances are, the diagnosis is a _fear of local landing pages. _ Which brings me to today's question! What are the toughest challenges you've faced when creating local landing pages? How have you overcome them? What successes have you had, and what lessons have you learned along the way?
Local Website Optimization | | MattRoney4 -
Page Title for a Local Shop
Hello everyone 🙂 I would like to have your opinion on one thing: I am working on a local shop selling pottery and other things. So I was thinking, would it make sense to title the page something like: “Pottery Object, San Francisco, Awesome Pottery” which means “keyword, location, company name”? Or is there a better way to optimize the title of the page for a local shop? Thank you very (very) much 🙂
Local Website Optimization | | Franco19780 -
Targeting different cities for my service - Geo landing pages
I am breaking my head trying to figure out the best way around this... so we have an hvac company located in nyc. We want to also target all the different boroughs. We have a bunch of different major keywords hvac repair + location hvac service + location along with keywords such as air conditioning repair + location, heating service + location , and so on..... Should each borough + keyword have its own page? Or should we just have one page called brooklyn and in that page target all the different keywords like hvac, air conditining, and heating ? Also does it matter how we have it laid out? Domaim/hvac-repair-brooklyn or should I add domain/service-area/hvac. ..... Some of my competitors have the same content written on each borough page just moved around a little with different city names, how are they ranking so well? Isn't that duplicate? Would love to hear from some people with success in this local area. Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | interstate0 -
Keywords with locations
I've seen quite a few threads that orbit around my questions, but none in the last year, so I'll ask it 🙂 I'm seeing some strange results when testing various keywords with and without locations included. For a foundation repair company in Indiana, we've optimized for all the big cities, since the company services the whole state. Here's a sample of weird stuff: Test 1: If I set my location (all other Google 'helps' turned off) to Indianapolis and search 'foundation repair' result is #3 'foundation repair indianapolis' result is #20 'indiana foundation repair' result is #18 Test 2: Location set to the small town the company is based in (Rossville, IN) 'foundation repair' result is #1 'foundation repair rossville' result is #3 behind other companies located in Rossville, GA, and Rossville, PA!! I suppose I was under the impression that the ip location data Google gathers would weigh more heavily than how place names are optimized as part of keywords (or just that the physical location would supplant the place name typed into the search if it happened to be the same). But according to these tests, it seems that inferred location is by far a secondary factor. I can deduce that we're more optimized than our competitors for 'foundation repair', but less optimized for keywords with place names in them (we feel like we'd be verging on stuffing if we did more). Am I missing something here? Has anyone else seen this sort of thing?
Local Website Optimization | | clearlyseo0