If you cover more than one town, you have probably wondered whether your website should have a page for each of them. A cleaner in Nottingham might also work in Long Eaton, Hucknall and Carlton. A landscaper might travel across half the county. These town pages are usually called service area pages, or location pages.
Done well, they help people in each area find you. Done badly, they can make your whole site look thin.
What a service area page is
A service area page is a page on your website about the work you do in one particular town or area. For example, "Gardening services in West Bridgford" or "Mobile hairdresser in Arnold".
The idea is simple. When someone searches for your service plus their town, a page that is clearly about that town has a better chance of being relevant. It also reassures the visitor. They can see straight away that you cover their area, without hunting through your site.
When they help
Service area pages tend to be worth doing when:
- You genuinely work in the town regularly, not just once a year.
- People search for your service using town names, which is common for trades, cleaners and salons.
- You have something specific to say about working in each place.
- You cover a handful of distinct towns, rather than one small patch.
They are less useful when you only work in one town, or when the areas you cover are so close together that customers think of them as the same place. In that case, a clear "areas we cover" section on your home page or contact page may be all you need.
The copy-paste trap
The most common mistake is writing one page, then copying it twenty times and swapping the town name. "We are the best roofers in Beeston" becomes "We are the best roofers in Bulwell", and nothing else changes.
This does not work well, for a few reasons:
- Google is good at spotting near-identical pages and may simply ignore most of them.
- Visitors notice. It reads like a template, and it does not build trust.
- It can make your site look low quality overall, which does not help your other pages.
The test is simple. If you could swap the town name and the page would still make complete sense, it is not doing its job. Each page should contain something that only applies to that place.
How to make each page genuinely useful
You do not need to write an essay for every town. A few hundred honest, specific words is plenty. Think about what a customer in that town would want to know.
Ideas for making each page different:
- Real jobs you have done there. Describe the type of work, with photos if you have them and the customer is happy for you to share. "We recently replaced a garden fence on a sloped plot near the park" is far more convincing than a generic line.
- Reviews from customers in that area. If you have a review from someone in Hucknall, put it on the Hucknall page.
- Local details that affect the job. Older terraced houses, parking restrictions, a conservation area, clay soil, hard water. Anything that genuinely changes how you work there.
- Practical information. How quickly you can usually get there, whether you charge for travel, which days you are normally in the area.
- The specific services you offer there. If you only do certain jobs further afield, say so.
- Nearby places. Mentioning the neighbouring villages or estates you also cover in that area helps people recognise it.
What to put on each page
A simple structure works well. Something like this:
- A clear heading naming the service and the town, such as "Window cleaning in Carlton".
- A short opening paragraph saying what you do there.
- A section on the services you offer in that town.
- A few lines on local details or recent jobs.
- One or two reviews from customers nearby.
- A list of the surrounding areas you also cover.
- Your phone number, a tap-to-call button and a contact form.
Make sure the page title and meta description mention the town and service too. We explain those in our post on meta titles and descriptions.
How many pages should you have
Start small. It is better to have four strong town pages than thirty weak ones. Pick the towns where you get the most work, or where you would like to get more, and write those first. You can always add more later when you have real jobs and reviews to put on them.
If you have nothing different to say about a town, list it in your "areas we cover" section instead.
Linking the pages together
A short "areas we cover" list in your footer, with each town linked to its page, works well. Link from each town page back to your main service pages too. Every few months, add a recent job or a newer review so the pages stay fresh.
A word on honesty
Only create pages for areas you actually serve. Do not invent offices or addresses in towns you do not work from, and do not claim to be "based in" a town if you are not. It misleads customers and can cause problems with your Google Business Profile.
Adding extra pages like these is something We are Graft quotes for as an add-on, and our Pro plan includes new pages as part of ongoing SEO work. You can see the details on our pricing page.
If you would like help working out which town pages are worth having for your business, get in touch or fill in the free design form. We reply within one working day.