Local SEO 26 July 2026 2 min read
Do I need a page on my website for every town I cover?
Yes, if you want to be found there. Here is why one "areas we cover" list does nothing, what a real town page looks like, and how many you need.
Short answerA list of towns on one page does not rank for any of them. A properly written page for each town does. Start with the five or six where you do the most work and add the rest over time.
Almost every tradesperson’s website has an “areas we cover” section. A paragraph, or a list of twenty towns. It feels like it should do the job. It does not.
Why the list does not work
Google ranks pages, not lists. When someone in Cranleigh searches for a roofer, Google looks for pages that are about roofing in Cranleigh. A page that is about roofing in general, with Cranleigh in a list of twenty places at the bottom, is not about Cranleigh. It is about nothing in particular, so it ranks for nothing in particular.
What a real town page is
A page for one town, written for that town. It says what you do there, how you get there, something specific about the place, and it sounds like it was written by someone who has actually been. Villages named. The kind of work that comes up there. A customer or two from there, if you have reviews you can quote.
What it is not: the Guildford page copied with “Cranleigh” swapped in. Google can tell when pages are near-identical and it quietly stops showing them. People can tell too.
How many you need
Start with the towns and villages where you already do most of your work, usually five or six. Those pages rank fastest because you have reviews and photos from there, and they bring in the most because you are already set up to work there.
Add the rest over time. On our care plan, adding a town page is one of the small changes that is included, so most clients add one or two a month until the whole patch is covered.
Small places are the easy wins
The big town is competitive. The villages are not. Almost nobody bothers to write a proper page for Ewhurst or Southwater or Pembury, so a decent one ranks in weeks. Village searches are also high intent: someone in a village searching for a plumber wants one who will come out, not a list of options. See how we approach this on our Surrey and West Sussex pages, where every town has its own.
Keep your Google Business Profile in step
Town pages on the site and the service area on your Google Business Profile should match. If your site says you cover Dorking, your profile’s service area should include Dorking. Google checks.
The short version
One town, one page, written properly. Start with the places you know best. Add the rest as you go. It is the single most effective thing a local business can do to be found, and it is built into every site we make.