Service area pages can be highly effective for bolstering your local SEO and gaining more visibility online for the specific regions that you cover. However, there is a right and a very wrong way to go about it.
In this article, we’re going to share some tips for creating valuable service area pages
and the common pitfalls to look out for.
Let’s get stuck in!
What is a service area page?
A service area page, much as the name suggests, is a landing page on your website that offers content outlining a specific service that you offer in a given area designed to drive more traffic to your website.
So, for example, if you offer pest control services Abu Dhabi-wide and cover a multitude of neighbourhoods, you can create individual pages with the appropriate focus keywords (e.g., Yas Island, Al Reem Island, Khalifa City, Al Reef, And Al Karamah, etc.).
When done well, this can be excellent for your local SEO and help attract more relevant traffic to your website for potential customers who are actively looking for services in those specific areas.
The question is, how can you create individual service area pages that add genuine value?
Common pitfalls with service area pages
First, let’s look at the most common mistakes that businesses make when creating service area pages for the website.
Being too generic
The most common mistake of all is creating a large amount of service area pages but sharing very generic information.
For example, it’s common practice for people to write a service area page using their focus keywords (e.g., Pest Control Services in Al Reem) with generic service-based information. Following that they will roughly rewrite the content again, only adding the next service area keyword and then publish it.
What happens is then you end up with multiple service area pages that are more or less exactly the same, only with different keywords. This is a prime example of a poor (and essentially pointless) service area page as they are only created for the sole purpose of improving local SEO – as opposed to providing genuine value to people.
No internal linking
Another common pitfall is creating service area pages and then failing to link internally to other important pages within the website. And when you have stand-alone pages without internal links connecting them to the rest of your website, they are classified as ‘orphaned content’ and thus rarely end up ranking well at all (largely due to Google struggling to crawl and index them).
Keyword stuffing
And then there’s keyword stuffing. This is a common service area pitfall where business owners and marketers try to squeeze as many of their geo-centric keywords into the content as possible, typically resulting in content that reads poorly and (again) doesn’t provide much in the way of value.
What constitutes an effective service area page?
So, how does one create an effective service area page that will add value to your users and keep the search engine gods happy?
The process is rather simple in concept:
- Create service area pages with intention: it’s not just about highlighting the services themselves, but how the area impacts said services. Using the same pest service company example, are certain regions more susceptible to a certain pest problem? Are there any local laws or restrictions to be aware of? And is the emergency call out service a longer wait due to being located further away from the main office? Etc…
- Make the content unique and highlight local landmarks: you should make the page as unique as possible and include any local landmarks / other region-specific information. You can include area nicknames that locals will know and enjoy and even write about how certain regional events may impact your services.
- Mention any relevant connections to other local businesses: you can also use your service area pages to strengthen your connection with other local businesses. For example, is there a local garage that services and maintains all of your pest control vehicles? Do you have a special agreement with various serviced apartments in the region?
In essence, the best service area pages are genuinely unique. It’s not enough to effectively copy & paste the same content and only switch up the keywords. If you want to be as impactful as possible and dominate your local SEO, you must make an effort to create useful and engaging content.
Conclusion
Of course, if you want to make the most out of your local SEO but you don’t have the time to dedicate to the many resource intensive tasks, it’s worth considering hiring the professionals. This SEO agency in Abu Dhabi has a sterling reputation with many 5-star reviews from recognised brands.
Either way, we hope this article has shed some light on the importance of creating truly unique, geo-focused content for your service area pages.