I’ve been traveling extensively, attending conferences, and engaging with marketers and business owners. Lately, I’ve been having frequent conversations about content, similar to the awkward “birds and bees” talk, but this time it’s about telling business owners how their previous SEO agencies may have misled them.
Currently, there’s a growing misconception among business owners—and even some marketers—that content is synonymous with SEO. Their focus seems to be on content, content, and more content, assuming that failing to add multiple pages monthly means no SEO is being conducted.
Hopefully, readers understand that this content-focused approach is misguided. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t realize this, and we could be doing a better job educating them on why this belief is flawed. A disconnect between what marketers know and what business owners believe can lead to difficulty in retaining clients.
This month, Greg’s Soapbox addresses the problem with the content overload strategy and explains why it’s ineffective.
### Lazy Local Content Pages Are Typically Doorway Pages
Often, adding location-targeted pages to a website monthly is part of the local content strategy. While this approach can be valid when executed correctly, it usually results in doorway pages—thin content solely intended for local search ranking.
Google penalizes sites for doorway pages, a practice they denounced in 2015. However, there’s been a recent uptick in doorway pages in local SEO. If a site has numerous pages not in any menu, all essentially identical with different city names, they’re likely doorway pages.
According to Google:
> Doorways are sites or pages created to rank highly for specific search queries. They’re detrimental to users by often displaying multiple similar pages in search results, which lead to the same destination.
Examples of doorway pages include having multiple domain names or pages aimed at specific regions, generating pages that funnel visitors to relevant site parts, and creating substantially similar pages that only slightly differ.
Google clarified the Doorway Page Penalty in early 2015:
– Are the pages part of the site’s overall user experience or simply a tool to optimize search engines?
– Do they replicate existing site content merely for additional search traffic?
– Are they isolated and not easily navigable from other site areas, and do internal links exist mainly for search engines?
Many low-quality local content pages fail these criteria. Educating business owners about potential penalties tied to these pages can illustrate why continually adding content-focused pages could be damaging.
### What About Pages for Human Users?
If you’re a car dealer, for example, having 25 pages about a specific truck for different cities is likely problematic. Those pages might not be on your main menu or easily accessible, all sharing the same truck image and minimal unique text.
These pages don’t add value for users. Rewriting the content repetitively doesn’t make it unique. While technically non-duplicate, they’re essentially the same, offering no value.
When creating content for your site, consider if it’s improving user experience or just aiming for search visibility. Thinking, “This will help me rank in that city,” signals a flawed approach.
Adding a few repetitive pages to your site won’t enhance your visibility in other cities.
### How Many Pages Are Necessary?
A common question is how many pages a site needs, and the simple answer is as many as necessary to address customer inquiries.
Adding numerous pages monthly without intrinsic purpose won’t benefit your site more than a few poorly executed location or product pages.
Focus on adding one or two quality pages each month. Once your site content is comprehensive, you needn’t keep adding pages. If you’ve opted for 15 new pages a month, reconsider the rationale behind that number, its strategy, and what it addresses.
Local SEO extends beyond content alone. Many factors impacting local SEO success don’t even appear on your site.
Targeting other cities requires more than just creating repetitive location pages. For a comprehensive plan integrating content pages, blog posts, social media, and link building, refer to my post on Local Content Silos from mid-2015.
Let’s unite in educating business owners and misguided agencies to end the cycle of unnecessary local content creation once and for all!
