SEO courseModule 6 of 10: LocalLesson 6.2
Area Pages That Show Real Local Knowledge
Pages about the places you cover that show genuine local knowledge (streets, schools, transport, prices, rents, who lives there), rather than the same template with a different town name dropped in.
Why it matters
Template area pages with the town name swapped show you don't really know the patch.
Why Google cares
Real local knowledge beats swapped place names
Do this first
Rewrite your most important area page from what your team actually knows.
01What it is
Writing 500 school reports and only changing the pupil’s name isn’t useful: everyone can tell you didn’t think about any of them. A page about a place needs real facts about that place.
Think of it like
Asking directions from a local who knows the streets, versus someone reading the place name off a piece of paper.
02Why it matters
To the people searching
Buyers and tenants use area pages to work out where they want to live. Sellers and landlords read them to judge whether you really know their patch.
buyers
Explore neighbourhoods, schools and commutes before they look at listings.
tenants
Want typical rents, transport and what an area is really like.
sellers
Judge your local expertise from what you say about their area.
landlords
Look for rent levels and demand in their area.
To Google and Bing
Real local knowledge beats swapped place namesLocal relevance comes from genuine coverage: local properties, market information and real area knowledge. Pages that only swap the place name are thin content (lesson 4.5), and pages made purely to rank for a list of town names are what Google's spam policies call doorway pages.
An agent example
An agency in a county town has 30 area pages where only the place name changes. It rewrites the five areas it genuinely works in, adding transport, typical prices and rents, schools, and what buyers and tenants ask there, and merges the rest into those five.
03Your turn
Check yours, then fix it
- 1Open three of your area pages and mentally swap the place names.
- 2If they still read the same, they're templates.
- Filter searches containing your area names and see which pages Google shows for them, and whether they get clicks.
- Search "living in [area]" or "[area] property" and compare the top local result with yours.
Rate this area page for how unique and useful it is. Which parts could have been written by someone who has never visited? What local detail is missing?
- 1Streets and micro-areas, schools, stations and commute times, typical prices and rents, who lives there, local quirks.
- 2Separate sections for what it's like to buy there and to rent there.
- 3Area FAQs from real client questions, and testimonials from clients in that area.
- 1Sold prices from HM Land Registry, and your own sold and let figures.
- 2Current listings and recent sold or let examples, plus a map showing which branch covers the area.
- 1Only create a page where you have real knowledge and real service.
- 2Merge or remove thin ones, redirecting them to the page that replaces them.
04Keep it up
Refresh each area page every six months, and update the figures quarterly.
That's lesson 6.2
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