Have you thought about turning the footer into a javascript footer that expands if someone clicks it? In essence, you would be removing the static footer to boost the UI and replace it with a dynamic footer that would continue to provide SEO (and occasional user) benefit.

I am interested in hearing the effects this removal has.

Thanks Miriam for your detailed response. I passed along your ideas for ways to gradually create content rather than all at once. I imagine the slow method would also help this website by adding content continuously throughout the year, rather than a "set it and forget it" model. It is a heating and cooling business so there website is more of a description of services and who they are and less an SEO-driven portal for dynamic engagement.

With that said, I'll play devil's advocate for one second to get your take. The footer we are proposing, in my view, does serve a larger non-SEO related purpose. It is used to actually convey what areas the business represents. I recognize that adding this to the footer of every page can be seen as duplicate content, but it is intended as information for a prospective client. If we just put it on one page, it might get missed.

I don't expect the website to rank for those cities considering how competitive their industry is and because we are not mentioning the cities in the content or URL structure. We are not doing link building for those cities and the client does not want Local SEO services. The new website was conceived with modernization in mind, not SEO. The footer is merely a way to mention cities, not part of a larger strategy.

Thoughts?

I am resurrecting this thread again as I have a question:

I am working on footer text for a client that serves a large swath of the SF Bay Area. I have separated the cities in the four counties they serve by population and have added the most populous cities into a sentence that will go on every page. Is this tactic tired? Is it played out? I've used it before with great success, but I am questioning it now with all the new guidelines/changes put forth by Google. Unfortunately, the client cannot afford to create unique content for each large city they serve so this is our attempt to get as many cities as possible mentioned multiple times. I am, however, apprehensive about this tactic.

Thoughts?

BusinessXYZ serves Oakland, Hayward, Berkeley, Vallejo, Fairfield, Walnut Creek, Concord, Daly City, as well as all SF Bay Area cities in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, San Mateo County and Napa County.