One page per city? How to rank in several Swiss towns
When local pages help, when they hurt, and how to write them so Google and your clients both find them useful.
Many Swiss SMEs work in several towns: a plumber covering the whole Lake Geneva region, a cleaning company active in Zürich and Winterthur, a coach seeing clients in Lausanne and Geneva. So the question comes up quickly: should you create one page per city to appear in each local search?
The honest answer: yes, but only if each page is truly useful. Here is how to do it without being penalised by Google.
Why local pages can work
When someone searches "electrician Winterthur", Google tries to show the most relevant local results. If your site only says "we work in the canton of Zürich", it is harder for Google to understand that you are a good answer for Winterthur specifically.
A page dedicated to a town, with content that really concerns that town, gives Google a clear signal and gives the visitor the reassurance they're looking for: "they work here".
The trap: copy-paste pages
The mistake we see most often: twenty identical pages where only the name of the town changes. "Your plumber in Nyon", "Your plumber in Morges", "Your plumber in Rolle", with exactly the same text.
Google calls these doorway pages. At best they are ignored, at worst they drag down the whole site. And a visitor who lands on one doesn't learn anything new.
Rule of thumb: if you can swap the town name and the page still makes perfect sense, the page is not local enough.
What makes a good local page
Each page should contain information that only makes sense for that place:
- the neighbourhoods or villages you cover around the town
- examples of jobs done there (with photos if possible)
- a testimonial from a client in that area
- practical details: travel time, parking, specific local rules
- the services most requested in that area
You don't need hundreds of words. You need real, specific content.
Start with your main towns
You don't need a page for every village. Start with:
- the town where you are based (often your homepage already covers it)
- two or three towns where you already have clients and want more
Once these pages bring results, you can add others, always with real content.
And in multilingual Switzerland?
If you work on both sides of a language border, for example Biel/Bienne, Fribourg or Valais, language matters as much as the town. People search in their own language: "Sanitär Biel" and "plombier Bienne" are two different searches.
In that case, a multilingual site, with each page properly translated (not machine-translated and left as is), usually works better than local pages in one language only.
Connect the pages to the rest of your site
A local page should never be isolated. Link to it from your homepage or your services page ("We also work in Winterthur and Uster"), and from the local page, link to your detailed service pages and your contact form.
And don't forget your Google Business Profile: list all the areas you cover in your service area settings.
In short
- Local pages are useful if they bring real local information
- Avoid identical pages where only the town changes
- Start with 2 or 3 strategic towns
- Think language as well as town in multilingual regions
- Link your local pages to the rest of your site
Done well, local pages help you appear where your clients actually are, and they reassure visitors that you know their area.
Tell us where your clients are. We'll suggest which local pages are worth creating.
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