How to approach same services, multiple locations for SEO purposes?

Question

I have a website for a company with multiple locations across a large state. Each location offers the same services. The corporate site lists all of the services offered in detail, and each location page does not.

Client wants to rank for searches like 'City Name Service X.' I'm thinking of a simple 'Services' page for each location, so that the Title tag says 'City Name Service X' with some descriptive text on the page and a list of links to the corporate pages that have the full descriptions of the service.

My concern is that either:

1) There won't be enough content on the page to rank for the search

2) The site will get hit with a duplicate content penalty for having 'city name service x' repeated 10 times across the site, with city name being the only thing that changes.

Any suggestions on how I might approach this differently?

Answer 1

The first thing to do is create or claim the Google Places page for each geographic location, and list as the website the appropriate landing page on your site. Make sure the name, address, phone number of each Places page exactly matches the NAP on your city specific pages and the city directories. Solicit some reviews from customers in each of those areas. That will go a long way toward ranking within the local search results in each city.

To prevent the duplicate content issue, consider talking about area-specific specials, or include pictures of the store and staff for each page. You can also include a Google Map and directions on each of the pages.

Answer 2

I would great a separate page for each location first then add each page to each local directory.

Answer 3

You need more content. Each city should be slightly different. I mean the cities are different aren't they? Talk about the uniqueness for each city. Use the city name as the page name. domain.com/computer-grand-rapids.html