Location pages SEO is the quickest win I know for a local business that works across lots of towns but only ranks for its own name. This is the story of a Wirral garden room company I work with: what I built, what happened, and the part that didn’t go to plan.
They had a good product, great builds and happy customers spread across the Wirral, Liverpool, Cheshire and the North West. Google didn’t know any of that.
The problem: one website, lots of towns
People don’t search for “garden rooms”. They search for “garden rooms Heswall” or “garden office Bebington”. If your site has no page that genuinely matches that search, you’re relying on luck.
The site had a single “areas we cover” section listing towns. It told Google very little, and Google’s own guidelines treat blocks of town names as keyword stuffing rather than useful content.
What good location pages SEO looks like
One page per town that matters. Each page covers one town, with real builds from that area, the sizes and styles people there go for, and a clear way to get a quote.
Genuinely different pages. Not the same page with the town name swapped. Google calls near-identical city pages doorway pages and can ignore or demote them. Every page needs its own photos, jobs and detail.
Case studies tied to places. Every finished build became a short case study with the town in the title, linked from the matching location page. Over time that grew to 37 location pages and 11 case studies.
The basics done properly. Clean page titles and meta descriptions, internal links between towns, case studies and services, and a Google Business Profile that matched the website.
The results
After the first five new local pages went live, organic search sessions went up 126% over the following month. Over 90 days, organic traffic was up around 360%.
By May the site was:
– Position 1 for Bebington and Prenton
– Top of the map pack and position 1 for Heswall and Bromborough
– Position 3 for Ellesmere Port
– Position 4, and top of the map pack, for Merseyside
And the visitors were good ones. Organic visitors enquired at 3.5% per session, against 0.7% from paid traffic at the time.
What the monthly reports show now
Rankings only matter if they bring work in. In August the site produced 25 website enquiries. September was quieter at 18, but the enquiry rate held at 4.8% of visits, so the drop came from fewer visitors, not worse ones. September also brought the site’s best ever 28 day average position.
That’s what a mature location pages SEO setup looks like: steady enquiries every month, rather than one big spike.
What didn’t go to plan
In the month organic traffic first jumped, total leads actually dropped, from 24 to 11. More visitors didn’t automatically mean more enquiries.
That’s normal for this kind of work, and it’s why I don’t stop at rankings. The next round focused on turning visitors into calls: clearer quote buttons, better forms, real photos on every page. One of those improved location pages went on to turn 17% of its views into enquiry actions.
Rankings get people to the site. The page has to do the rest.
How to start your own location pages
- List the towns you genuinely want work from, and pick your best five.
- For each one, gather real jobs, photos and anything specific to that area.
- Build one page per town, each written fresh, with a quote button near the top.
- Turn finished jobs into case studies with the town in the title and link them to the matching page.
- Watch enquiries in your monthly report, not just traffic.
If you cover more than a handful of towns and only rank for your own name, this is where I’d start. Want to know which towns you’re missing? I’ll check your site for free and tell you.
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FAQ
How many location pages should I have?
One for every town you genuinely want work from and can show real jobs in. Start with your best five, make them excellent, then add more.
Will Google penalise lots of similar town pages?
It can. Near-identical city pages count as doorway pages under Google’s spam policies. Each page needs its own photos, jobs and useful detail.
How long do location pages take to rank?
For this client, traffic moved within the first month after the first five pages went live. Map pack and top positions took a few months of steady work.
