Google has rolled out four spam updates this year. After each one, the same worry comes up at franchise and multi-location head offices: our location pages all look alike. Is Google going to penalize us?
The answer has two parts, and most people stop at the first one.
The short answer to whether Google will penalize duplicate location pages: no, not just for being similar. But staying clear of a penalty doesn’t mean Google will show those pages. Similar pages are allowed. Pages with nothing of their own get left out.
Similar pages aren’t the problem. Pages that exist only to catch a search are.
You may have seen the term scaled content abuse. It sounds like it means too many pages that look alike.
It doesn’t.
Google’s test is purpose. In Google’s spam policies, scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated mainly to manipulate search rankings and not to help people. A page that helps someone find and use a real location isn’t that, even if it shares most of its wording with the page for the next town over.
A second rule matters more for location pages. Google calls it doorway abuse, and one of its own examples is pages aimed at specific regions or cities that funnel visitors to one page.
So repeating content isn’t the problem. Pages that exist only to catch a search are.
Three questions tell you which side of the line a page is on
Here is how we think location pages should be judged at The Story: not by how many words differ from one page to the next, but by three yes-or-no questions. Open one of your real location pages and try them.
- Is there a real place behind this page? A real address, real people, real hours. If you created pages for nearby cities just to show up in more searches, those are the pages at risk.
- If you removed the city name, could you tell which location this is? If you can’t, neither can Google or AI. To them, it’s just a copy.
- Can a visitor do what they came to do on this page? Call the location, book there, get directions. Or does the page just send them somewhere else?
If you can say yes to all three, you haven’t broken a rule.
That’s the easy half.
Following the rules doesn’t mean Google will show your pages
Staying inside the rules only means Google won’t penalize you. When 50 pages say the same thing, Google has no reason to show all 50. It shows a few and leaves out the rest.
From inside the business, that looks like your pages are disappearing from Google, and it feels like a penalty. It isn’t one. Google didn’t find anything on those pages that was wrong or against its rules. It just didn’t find enough on them to be worth showing.
The difference matters because the fix is different. A penalty means something has to come off the site. Being left out means something is missing from the page.
AI recommends the location that gave it details
The same is true for AI. When someone asks ChatGPT, Google’s AI or Claude to recommend a place near them, the answer is built from details the tool can find.
Which services does this location offer? What are its customers saying? When is it open?
If your page has the same text as 49 others, there is nothing on it about this location to use. So AI recommends a business that gave it those details.
You don’t need to rewrite every page. Each one needs something only that location has.
Here’s the good news. Fixing this doesn’t mean rewriting every sentence for every location.
Your brand story, your core services, your standards and your policies should be the same everywhere. That isn’t spam. That’s consistency, and it protects your brand.
What each page does need is something only that location could have:
- Real photos of the location and the team. The building someone will walk into and the people they will meet.
- Reviews from that location’s customers. What people nearby say about this place, not about the brand in general.
- The services offered there. Not every location offers everything, and visitors want to know before they call.
- Hours, directions and parking. The practical details that decide whether someone makes the trip.
- A short welcome from the local owner or manager. In their own words, not head office’s.
That’s what tells a visitor, Google and AI that this is a real place worth showing.
For a franchisor, this splits the work cleanly. Head office keeps the shared parts consistent, and each owner or manager supplies the handful of things only they have.
The better question: does each page give someone a reason to choose that location?
So the question isn’t “are our pages too similar?” It’s “does each page give someone a reason to choose this location?”
Think about someone comparing you with the business down the street. If your page shows them the people they’ll meet, what nearby customers say and what they can get at this location, they have a reason to choose you.
If it shows them the same paragraph that’s on every other page, they don’t.
Give people a reason to choose you, and you give Google and AI a reason to show you.
How much of a location page needs to be unique?
There is no percentage to hit. Google’s spam policies describe what a page is for, not how many of its words are different, so a page can share most of its copy with its sister pages and still be fine. What counts is whether the part that’s different is something only that location could have.
Go back to the three questions and run them on your weakest location page, not your best one. If you’re not sure which side of the line your pages are on, we’re happy to take a look with you.