Local landing pages vs doorway pages

6 Oct 2026 · 3 min read

If you serve customers in several towns, a page per town sounds like an obvious idea. People search for “physiotherapy Kisumu” and “plumber Karen”, and a page that matches the search has a better chance of appearing. The trouble is that the same idea, done carelessly, is exactly what Google calls a doorway.

What Google means by a doorway

Google's spam policies define doorway abuse as “when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries. They lead users to intermediate pages that aren't as useful as the final destination.” Among the examples Google gives:

Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.
Generating pages to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of a site.
Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy.

Notice what is not on the list: having a page for each place you serve. The problem is pages that exist only to catch a search and pass the visitor along, and pages that are the same page with a different town name.

The swap test

Take two of your local pages and swap the town names. If each still reads as true, the pages are not really about those towns. They are one page published many times, and visitors who land on them learn nothing about their area. That is the pattern to avoid.

What makes a local page legitimate

A legitimate local page tells someone in that place something they need and could not get from the generic page. The details depend on the business, but they usually come from this list:

How the area is served. A branch with an address and opening hours, home visits, a mobile unit on certain days, delivery, or online only. Say which, plainly.
Local facts that differ. A price that varies by branch, a delivery charge or turnaround for that town, which services are available there and which are not.
Practical details. Where to park, which landmark the branch is near, how to book, the local phone or WhatsApp number if there is one.
Local context that matters to the decision. The county or local authority rules that apply, the hospitals or partners you refer to in that area, the suburbs a technician covers.
Real people. The branch manager, or the clinician who runs the satellite clinic, where that is true.

If you cannot fill in most of that for a town, do not build the page. A smaller set of genuinely local pages is better for visitors and safer for the site than a page for every county.

Structure helps too

Google's examples single out pages that sit “closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy”. So give local pages a place in the site: a service page that links to the areas where it is offered, area pages that link back to the service and to neighbouring areas, and breadcrumbs that show where the visitor is. A visitor should be able to reach every local page by clicking, not only from a search result.

A checklist before you publish

Do you actually serve this place, and does the page say how?
Does the page contain at least one fact that differs from the other local pages (a price, a branch, a turnaround, availability)?
Would it fail the swap test?
Does it answer the visitor's question on the page itself, rather than sending them elsewhere to find it?
Can a visitor reach it by browsing the site, and does it link to the relevant service and to nearby areas?
Is there a way to act from the page: call, message or enquire?
Would you be happy for a customer in that town to read it?

When to leave a combination out

Not every service needs a page in every area. If a service is only offered at one branch, one page for that branch is honest. If two towns are served identically from the same base, one page that names both may serve visitors better than two near-copies. The aim is pages people can use, not the largest possible number of pages.

Searchlode only builds local pages for areas a client confirms they serve, and expects each to say how the area is served. Its quality gate holds back any page whose substance duplicates another, which is the mechanical version of the swap test.