Google Search Console Flagging Service Area Pages

[cleverlyengaged]

Wondering how often this happens to others in the industry. I have been following all of the errors and warnings in the coverage section of Google Search Console.

How big of an issue is this error?
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user

It happens a lot on service area businesses I work with where we have created local landing pages for each city in their service area.

The pages follow a similar template, but aren't duplicated.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I haven't come across this specific issue but now that you bring it up I'm going to check a few examples. I will respond back if I see anything useful.

 

[Justin Mosebach]

I've seen a large pest control site (with 30+ locations) use a bunch of unique reviews/testimonials on each location page. Those pages are all being indexed despite the rest of the content essentially being templated.

 

[JS Girard]

I was watching the Rio SE Myth Busting webinar just a little earlier. Chad Klingensmith said the rule of thumb to avoid a duplicate content finding for landing pages is about 30% unique content per page. Using reviews/testimonials was specifically mentioned as a convenient way to get that unique content.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Whether or not the content is targeting different geographic areas makes a huge difference on how they will perform.

This was a case study that we released last year. Can Service Area Pages With Duplicate or Similar Content Increase Traffic? - Sterling Sky Inc