Guides
Local pages, explained properly
Plain-spoken guides to service-area SEO: what to build, what to write, what Google penalises, and how to scale pages without going thin. No hacks, no volume worship.
01A free local SEO plugin for WordPress that builds real location pages (not just schema)A free WordPress plugin that builds real location pages, not just schema. It generates pages you own, scores how similar each one is before you publish, and runs entirely on your own server with no AI and no external calls.02AEO vs GEO vs SEO for local businesses: what the acronyms mean and which to bother withSEO, AEO and GEO decoded for local businesses, with honest 2026 citation stats and why the work behind all three is roughly 90 percent the same.03Brand mentions and AI search: why an unlinked mention can matter as much as a backlink for local firmsFor local AI visibility, an unlinked mention of your business name can matter as much as a backlink. How to earn them, and why a clean profile still wins.04Common schema mistakes on local and location pages (and how to check yours)The common local schema mistakes and how to check yours: wrong business type, marking up invisible content, schema counts that miss the page, and an overstated areaServed.05Crawl budget for local sites: stop wasting it on thin location pagesCrawl budget rarely matters for small local sites, but a glut of thin area pages can choke the crawl queue. Prune pages, improve TTFB and segment the sitemap.06Do location pages go stale? When (and how) to refresh service-area pagesLocation pages decay when local intent shifts, competitors arrive or the detail ages. Learn how to spot stale service-area pages and refresh them properly.07Does schema markup actually help you show up in AI search? An honest look at the evidenceSchema markup earns rich results and clarifies your business for Google, but the evidence shows no direct lift in AI Overviews or ChatGPT. An honest look.08Entity SEO for local businesses: becoming a thing Google recognises, not just a string of keywordsEntity SEO means getting Google to recognise your business as one specific, real thing, not a bag of keywords. What that takes, and what no plugin can fake.09Free duplicate-content checker for your own location pagesPaste two of your own location pages and see how much text they share. A free duplicate content checker that runs entirely in your browser, using the same shingle-and-overlap method at the heart of the Local Pages Engine plugin.10Google Business Profile or location pages: which does the work for a service-area businessA Google Business Profile wins the map pack and AI recommendations; location pages win the organic long-tail. A service-area business needs both.11How much AI content is acceptable to Google? What the rule actually isThere is no acceptable percentage of AI content, because Google publishes no threshold and judges the page, not the method. Here is the four-part test that replaces the percentage, and why near-duplication is the real risk for location pages.12How to get your local business cited in AI Overviews (without gaming it)There is no AI-only trick for AI Overviews: lead each local page with a direct answer, a real price band, plain FAQs and consistent facts.13How to write AI-assisted SEO content that actually ranks (assist, do not generate)SEO content that ranks is assisted, not generated. The workflow that keeps location pages safe: source the facts yourself, draft by hand, and use AI only as a sentence-level editor.14Is programmatic SEO dead? What the 2026 core updates actually changedProgrammatic SEO is not dead, but the lazy version is. What Google's scaled content abuse policy and the 2024 to 2026 core updates actually changed for location pages, and the line that decides which side yours fall on.15Is your business showing up in ChatGPT and AI Overviews? How to check it yourselfCheck if your business appears in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews in fifteen minutes. Run three prompt types in a private session and read the result honestly.16Local keyword research for location pages: choosing which towns and services deserve a pageLocal keyword research for location pages means choosing which town-and-service combinations have real demand and distinct content to deserve a page.17Local SEO by industry: which businesses actually need location pages (and which just need a Google Business Profile)Need location pages, or just a Google Business Profile? It depends on your business shape, not your industry. The three shapes and what each one needs.18Location page examples, scored: real pages and the quality score each would getThree real-shaped location pages, scored against the same rubric the Quality Score uses, so you can see exactly why one would rank and another would be flagged as a doorway-page risk.19Location pages for multi-location dental practices (without the duplicate-content penalty)Multi-location dental SEO: make each practice page differ in substance, named clinicians, NHS or private plans, treatments and access, not just the town.20Multi-location SEO without competing with yourself: how many pages, and which to hold backIn a multi-location estate the real competitor is the page next door. How many town pages to build, which to hold back, and how to stop them cannibalising each other.21NAP on your location pages: how name, address and phone should appear (and when to hide the address)How name, address and phone should appear on your location pages, what a service-area business shows instead of a street address, and why fake ones backfire.22Programmatic SEO without thin content: the quality-first guide (2026)Programmatic SEO is not penalised for scale, only for thin pages. The quality-first method runs in four steps: unique per-page substance, similarity checks, a quality gate, and publishing in tranches.23Rank Math vs Yoast for a local or multi-location business (and what neither does for you)Rank Math vs Yoast for local SEO: both add titles, meta and LocalBusiness schema, but neither writes or quality-checks your location page content.24Safe programmatic SEO for WordPress: location pages at scale without the thin-content riskBuild location pages at scale on WordPress without the thin-content risk. Townsmith scores every page 0-100, finds near-duplicate siblings, and shows it before you publish. No AI, no external calls in the free plugin.25Scaled content abuse and location pages: what crosses Google’s line after the 2026 updatesHow the March 2026 spam and core updates changed enforcement of scaled content abuse, where the line falls for a location-page estate, and a five-step recovery checklist.26SEO for estate agents with multiple branches: area pages that are not just a swapped town nameA good estate-agent branch or area page differs in substance – property stock, price band, catchments, market movement and a valuation CTA – not just the town name.27Service-area business SEO: ranking with no shopfront (the no-storefront playbook)The service-area business SEO playbook: when to hide your address on Google Business Profile, and how to rank with no NAP anchor.28Setting up multiple location pages with Rank Math (the schema is the easy part)Rank Math's multi-location setup (Local SEO module, RM Locations CPT, Local Business block, KML sitemap) takes ten minutes. The hard part is distinct local content.29Should you buy Google reviews? Why fake review signals fail the same way thin pages doNo. Google bans paid and incentivised reviews and removes detected fakes, and bought reviews fail like thin doorway pages: they fake a signal you should earn.30The quality-first alternative to Page Generator Pro and bulk page generatorsBulk generators like Page Generator Pro win on volume. Townsmith is the quality-first alternative: a Quality Score and gate, Safety Check, Twin Finder.31Topical authority for local businesses: the service-and-area modelTopical authority for a local business stands on two axes: how completely you cover your service and how genuinely you serve each area. Page count is not the signal.32What is llms.txt, and should you bother? An honest 2026 verdictAn honest 2026 verdict on llms.txt for SEO. Google says Search ignores it, so it is not a ranking factor. What it actually is and who should bother.33Why your Google review stars are not showing on your websiteAdding Review or AggregateRating to your own LocalBusiness schema will not show Google stars. Here is why, what still earns them, and what to do.34Why your location pages are not indexed: Discovered and Crawled, currently not indexedDiscovered, currently not indexed means Google has queued your location page. Crawled, currently not indexed is a quality verdict. Here is the honest fix.35Service-area pages, done properlyWhat a service-area page is, when it earns its place, and the anatomy that separates a page that ranks from a doorway page that gets ignored.36Doorway pages and the line Google drawsWhat Google's spam policies actually say about doorway pages and scaled content, the substitution test, and how to fix a location-page estate that fails it.37How many location pages should you build?A method instead of a magic number: the defensibility test, evidence-led prioritisation, and building local pages in tranches you can stand behind.38Local landing pages: what to write when every town feels the sameSix sources of genuinely local content for landing pages, the forty-word rule, and why shared structure is fine but shared substance is not.39A location page template that scales without going thinWhat a location page template should automate, what it must refuse to write, deterministic copy variations, and choosing between flat and hierarchical URLs.40LocalBusiness schema for service-area businessesOne LocalBusiness node, Service entities with areaServed per page, one graph even alongside an SEO plugin, and honest FAQ markup.41Internal linking for local pagesHub pages per service, geo-ordered related-area links, breadcrumbs, and why links should be written into the page markup rather than rendered at runtime.42Duplicate content across location pagesNear-duplication is what kills location pages: how to measure sibling similarity with shingles and Jaccard overlap, the thresholds that matter, and the fix.43Local SEO for tradespeopleThe six or eight pages a trade business actually needs, how the website and Google Business Profile divide the work, and a first ninety days.44Generating location pages in WordPressHand-built pages, page builders and bulk generators compared, plus seven questions that separate trustworthy tooling from a doorway factory.45Google’s scaled content policy, in plain EnglishWhat Google's scaled content policy actually says, what it does not, the three questions that decide it, and Google's own self-assessment checklist.46E-E-A-T for local business websitesWhat Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust mean for a local trade site, with the concrete evidence each one needs and Google's who-how-why test.47How AI search finds local businessesHow AI assistants retrieve and cite sources, what Google officially requires for its AI features, what tends to get quoted, and the honest place of llms.txt.48Programmatic SEO for local businessesWhy programmatic SEO works when there is real data underneath and collapses into doorway pages when there is not, plus the recipe for the defensible version.49Service page vs location pageThe two page types every local site runs on, when each earns its place, how they link as hub and spokes, and the duplication trap between them.50Measuring location pages in Search ConsoleFour Search Console reads for a location-page estate: impressions, clickless impressions, query mismatch and page-two stalls – and when to improve or retire.51How to Rank for Near Me Searches Without Writing Near Me Anywhere52Local Landing Page Checklist: 40 Checks Before You Publish53Do Location Pages Need Their Own Photos? What to Use for Cities You Cannot Shoot54Writing a Service Area Page for a Town You Have Not Worked In Yet55FAQs on Location Pages Without Creating Duplicate Content56Location Page Content Ideas: 20 Things to Write When Every Town Looks the Same57How to Choose Google Business Profile Categories for a Service Business58How Many Cities Should Your Google Business Profile Service Area Cover59Will AI content get your location pages penalised?Google judges the location page, not the tool that made it. How AI content gets pages penalised, what that looks like, and how to stay safe.