What Are Service Area Pages
Service Area Pages, often called SAPs, are pages built on a website for suburbs or cities that a business services. You can rank well on Google and get more local leads and business if executed properly. Abusing this can lead to duplicate content and site quality issues.
Understanding Intent
Understanding the intent of searchers for your business category is essential. For a roofing company, people search not only at the city level but also at the suburb level:
- Example Searches:
- Columbus Roofing Company (city-level search)
- Gahanna Roofing Company (suburb-level search)
Service area pages emerge when companies create dedicated pages for each geographic area they serve. This is most prominent at the suburb level.
Service Area Pages vs. Location Pages
Many people get confused between Service Area Pages and Location Pages. A location page is similar to a Service Area Page; the main difference is the business has a physical location in this market.
Often, businesses don’t have actual locations despite having a Google Business Profile in a specific market. They’ll create location pages, promoting a fake physical presence to rank better locally. This is misleading to users and search engines but can work, which is why this tactic is so prominent. However, it can pose a risk of getting reported by competitors, so I always like to tell businesses the pros and cons of this tactic.
Examples of Service Area Pages vs. Location Pages
Let me give you some examples to better visualize the difference between the two.
Feazel Roofing
Feazel is located in 9 markets in the U.S. They want to rank for “Columbus Roofing Company, so they created this page. They also want to rank for suburbs, so they’ve created Service Area Pages for Delaware, Dublin, New Albany, etc. Columbus functions as their location page since they have a physical office there. Delaware, Dublin, and New Albany are service area pages for suburbs where they perform work but maintain no physical location.
Bainbridge Law Firm
Bainbridge Law Firm has nine different locations. They’ve created location pages for Columbus, Ironton, Cambridge, etc.
Best Practices for Service Area Pages
Now you better understand what a Service Area Page is and how it differs from a Location page. Let’s discuss tactics to rank well with Service-Area Pages.
Unique Content
The most challenging part with SAPs is you are writing about the same service in numerous markets. It’s hard to make content unique when writing 50 suburb pages for a roofing company.
We love to interview our clients to ask them about each specific market. The example below was content we obtained from an interview with the owner of a landscaping company in Cleveland. You can see him sharing his knowledge of Chagrin Falls, an affluent suburb he wants to rank for.
Case Studies/Reviews/Photos
- Case Studies:
- We’re currently working with this client to find case studies from two clients in Chagrin Falls. This will add unique content and make Chagrin Fall Residents more confident in dealing with a company when they see similar jobs they’ve serviced in the market.
- Testimonials:
- Grabbing testimonials from customers within this suburb is helpful and adds more unique content and a trustworthy factor.
- Photos
- For our landscaping client, we’re working with them on adding unique photos for jobs performed in this suburb. Google doesn’t want to see the same images on each page, making SAP more authentic.
Internal Linking
Service Area Pages provide an excellent opportunity to internally link to other key pages on your site. For J&D Landscaping, we have internal links to their key service pages (see below). Strong internal linking can improve your SEO.
You must also have strong internal links going to your Service Area Pages. Going back to the Feazel Example from earlier, the “Feazel Serves Many Communities” graphic showcases how, from their homepage, the most powerful page on the site, they are internally linking to their service area pages.
Related Blog: How to Optimize Service Pages
Be Truthful
J&D Landscaping is based in Burton, OH, which is 23 minutes from Chagrin Falls. Don’t act like your business is headquartered somewhere when it’s not. On the Chagrin Falls page, there should be verbiage that states, “Located in Burton, our fleet is a short 23-minute drive to Chagrin Falls, and we constantly service residents and businesses in this charming area.”
Send Paid Traffic to SAPs
Google prioritizes pages that attract consistent traffic and deliver positive user experiences [source]. For your PPC campaigns, if you’re bidding on the keyword “Chagrin Falls Landscaping,” send the traffic to the location page. You can also run a Meta Ads campaign targeting affluent homeowners in Chagrin Falls and showcase one of the case studies in your creative, ultimately driving traffic to your Service Area Page.
Staying Organized: Template to Use for Service Area Pages
Staying organized is essential for SAPs. We’ve created a template [see below] that allows us to get the correct information for each client in a streamlined manner.
Ability to Scale
Once we get the approved content, we send it to our graphic design team, who will create a mock-up similar to THIS ONE. We then send it to our development team, who can scale this across many pages.
In Closing
Now you understand what Service Area Pages are and how to optimize them for Google rankings. This approach will streamline your process and help you capture those valuable hyperlocal searches. If you need any support, don’t hesitate to contact The Media Captain.
