An HVAC company that serves Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks and Owasso naturally wants to show up for "AC repair Bixby" and "AC repair Owasso" separately. That instinct is right. The usual execution, one page per suburb with the same paragraph and a swapped town name, is the part Google has a name for.
What Google's Policy Says
Google's spam policies define doorway abuse as pages created to rank for specific, similar searches that lead users to intermediate pages rather than something useful. Its examples include "having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" and "creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy." I cover the general case in why more service area pages isn't better.
The Two-Second Test
Cover the suburb name on the page. Does it still say something that's only true for that suburb? If the page reads the same in Bixby as it does in Jenks, it has nothing to add, and it's the kind of page that risks looking like a doorway.
What Earns a Suburb Page
A page has to contain something real. Only include what's true for your business.
- Jobs you've actually done there, with permission from the customer.
- Reviews from that suburb, with the customer's consent.
- Specifics about how you serve it, such as which technician covers it or how fast you can typically get there.
- Photos of real work in that area.
A Structure That Works
- One strong service area page that lists every suburb you cover and links to the pages that have substance.
- A separate page only for the suburbs where you have real material to put on it.
- Your Business Profile covers the rest. It can list up to 20 service areas, as I explain in setting up an HVAC Business Profile.
An Example for Four Suburbs
Say you serve Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks and Owasso. You might publish one service area page that names all four and explains how you cover them. Then you add a Bixby page only if you have real Bixby material, say a few jobs, a review from a Bixby customer and a note on how quickly you can get there. If you can't fill a Jenks page with anything true and specific, leave it off. The Business Profile still names Jenks as a service area.
If You Already Have Thin Pages
- List every suburb page and ask the two-second test of each.
- Keep the ones that have something real on them, and build those out.
- Fold the thin ones into your service area page and point the old addresses to it, so nobody lands on a dead link.
Fewer, better pages beat a stack of copies. It's also the approach behind my work on HVAC marketing in Tulsa.