Local landing pages: how to make a page for each area you serve

Why build local landing pages?

Because people search with the place in the query: "airport transfer Dubrovnik", "boat rental Hvar town", "walking tour Alfama". A transfer company that serves three airports, or a boat or scooter rental with pickup points in two harbours, has one home page that cannot answer all of those at once. A page per place can, as long as it gives that place's own details. Google's helpful content guidance asks whether a page gives a substantial, complete description of its topic, and its spam policies name pages made only to rank for similar searches as doorway abuse. Everything below keeps you on the first side of that line. If you run separate branches with their own staff and addresses, read our guide to local SEO for multiple locations instead.

How do you create local landing pages?

1. 1. List the places guests already ask about

   Go through your bookings, emails and calls for the towns, airports, ports and neighbourhoods guests name. Google's guidance asks whether content is made for people who would come to you directly. Start with the places that bring real bookings; our post on local SEO keywords shows how to check what people search.²

2. 2. Match them to the service areas on your Google profile

   A service-area business can set up to 20 service areas on its Business Profile, by city, postcode or region, and Google says the whole area should stay within about 2 hours' drive of the base. Use the same places on your site, so your profile and pages describe one business.⁴

3. 3. Write the facts that are true of that place alone

   For an airport page: which terminal exit the driver waits at, the journey time to the old town, the fixed price and what happens if the flight is late. For a harbour page: where the boats are moored, where to park, the fuel dock and the bays within an hour. Google asks whether content provides original information and goes beyond the obvious, and these details do.²

4. 4. Price and time every route from that place

   The question a guest searching "transfer Split airport to Trogir" has is how long and how much. Put a small table on each page: destination, journey time, price per car or per person, and what changes at night or in high season.²

5. 5. Title and link the pages the same way you would branches

   Each page needs its own title, such as "Dubrovnik Airport transfers | Adria Rides", and an ordinary link from an "Areas we serve" page. Our multiple-locations guide covers both in detail.⁵

6. 6. Show a street address only where customers come

   Google tells a business that does not serve customers at its address to remove that address from its profile. Do the same on your pages: if guests never come to your base, name the base town and the areas you serve, and never invent a street address in a town where you have no premises.⁴

7. 7. Merge pages that have nothing of their own

   If two town pages differ only in the town's name, fold them into one page that covers both, since Google's spam policies treat near-identical city pages as doorway abuse.¹

8. 8. Check the pages after a few weeks

   Google's starter guide says changes can take from a few hours to several months to show and suggests judging them after a few weeks. Track each place's main search with the free local rank checker, and run a page through the website grader if it does not move.⁷

Checklist

• Places taken from real bookings and enquiries
• Same places as the profile's service areas
• Pickup point, timing and price for each place
• A table of routes, times and prices on each page
• A distinct title on every page
• An Areas we serve page with ordinary links
• Street address only where customers come
• Near-identical pages merged
• Rankings checked after a few weeks

Written by Joseph Jang, Co-founder, PlacePilot