Short answer: A location page tells people and Google that you serve a city or area. It works when it describes your real work there and helps people take the next step. Google’s spam policies call it doorway abuse when pages target cities only to funnel visitors to one page, or when pages are substantially similar. Write each page for its area.
What Google calls doorway pages
Google defines doorway abuse as sites or pages created to rank for specific, similar searches that lead people to intermediate pages less useful than the final destination.
Two of its examples matter for local businesses. One is pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. The other is substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy.
A useful location page and a doorway page
| A useful location page | A doorway page | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Helps people in that area choose you | Catches a city search and sends people elsewhere |
| Text | Written for that area | The same text with the city name changed |
| Next step | Contact or booking on the page itself | Sends visitors on to one other page |
| Structure | Part of a clear hierarchy of pages | Pages closer to search results than to a clear hierarchy |
| Number | One per area you really serve | As many as there are city searches |
The doorway column follows Google’s spam policies, read November 3, 2026. The other column is our reading of what makes the page useful.
Location pages and your Business Profile
A page on your site isn’t a location on Google Maps. Google allows one Business Profile for each real location of your business, never more than one per location. A service-area business gets one profile for its central office, with a designated service area.
Google adds that the service area shouldn’t reach much farther than about two hours’ drive from where you’re based. A service business with separate locations, each with its own area and staff, can have a profile for each.
A virtual office doesn’t count unless it’s staffed during business hours. So list your real offices on Google, and use your site to explain the areas you serve.
How to create location pages
- List the areas you really serve, and which office serves each one.
- Give each area one page, inside a clear structure such as service, then city.
- Write what’s particular there: the local market, the kind of jobs you do, travel or visits.
- Put contact or booking on the page itself, not a click away.
- Keep one Business Profile per real office, with your service area in it.
- Add LocalBusiness structured data only to pages for an office with an address.
- Compare your city pages, and rewrite or merge the ones that read the same.
Our guides to internal links and schema markup for a local business go deeper into steps 2 and 6.
How our own city pages compare
We have eight pages for SEO in different cities, from Miami to Phoenix, each between 1,183 and 1,888 words long. On November 3, 2026, we compared every pair, 28 in all, by the runs of five words they share.
Pairs share between 7.9% and 14.9% of their wording. Almost all of it is in blocks every page carries on purpose: the booking box, the founders, the source notes and the chart from our study of Spanish searches. Each city’s market, searches and examples are written for that city.
Before you publish a location page
- You really serve that area.
- The text is written for that area, not copied with a new city name.
- Contact or booking is on the page.
- It sits in a clear structure with your other pages.
- Your Business Profile lists real offices only.
- LocalBusiness markup is only on pages with a real address.
RememberA location page earns its place by being useful to people in that area. If two of your city pages read the same, they’re one step from being doorway pages.
If you want location pages that rank without crossing Google’s lines, see our local SEO service.
Quick answers about location pages
Are city pages bad for SEO?
Not by themselves. Google’s spam policies target pages made to rank for similar searches. One example is pages for cities that funnel visitors to one page. A city page with real content of its own is a different thing.
How different do my location pages need to be?
Google gives no percentage. Its policies name substantially similar pages as a problem, so write each page for its area. In our own city pages, the shared text is the booking box, the founders and the source notes.
Do I need a Business Profile for every city I serve?
No. A service-area business gets one profile for its central office, with a service area that Google says shouldn’t reach much farther than about two hours’ drive. Separate profiles are for real locations with their own area and staff.
Should every city page have LocalBusiness structured data?
Only pages for a real location. Google’s LocalBusiness markup describes a business’s address, hours and departments, and the address is required. A page about an area you serve from elsewhere has no address of its own to mark up.
Can I create a page for a city where I have no office?
Google’s Business Profile rules allow a service area served from one office. In our reading, a page about how you serve that area, with content written for it, isn’t a doorway page. A copy with the city name changed is.
Sources
Read on November 3, 2026. Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search and Local Business structured data. Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Our own case: our eight city pages, November 3, 2026.