Local
Do city landing pages still work in 2026?
This question usually arrives as a choice between building location pages and focusing on the Google profile. Both are worth doing, in a specific order.
Why the templated version stopped working
For years the tactic was one page per town, generated by swapping the place name. Search engines got good at recognising that pattern, and it does not just fail, it can actively harm a site by filling it with near-duplicate pages that add nothing.
The research behind this article found exactly that pattern still ranking in several Alberta cities, published by agencies with no presence there. That is not evidence the tactic works. It is evidence nobody local has bothered to compete.
What a real city page contains
The test is simple. Could this page be copied onto another town by changing the name, and still be true?
If yes, it is a template and it will perform like one. If no, you have something.
Real substance means jobs you have actually done there, with photographs from those jobs. Specifics about the place, such as the age of housing stock, the problems that come with it, permit requirements in that municipality, or how the drive affects scheduling. Reviews from customers in that town. The names of neighbourhoods.
Fewer, better
Most businesses would be better served by three or four genuine pages than by twenty thin ones.
This is also the honest constraint. If you have never worked in a town, you cannot write a real page about it, and you should not pretend. Write pages for the places you actually serve and let the list grow as the work does.
The order of operations
Do the Google Business Profile first. It carries most local enquiries and takes an afternoon.
Then city pages for the places you genuinely work, which reach beyond the radius the map pack imposes.
The opening in smaller Alberta cities
In Red Deer, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat and Fort McMurray, much of what currently ranks was written by people who have never been there.
A page with real photographs of real work, written by somebody who has actually driven the highway, is not competing with much. That is unusual and it will not last indefinitely.
Common questions
Do city landing pages still work for local SEO?
Pages with genuine local substance still work. Pages produced by duplicating one template and swapping the city name largely do not, and can drag down the rest of the site by adding many near-identical pages of little value.
What makes a city page actually rank?
Real work you have done in that place, photographs from those jobs, details specific to the area, reviews from customers there, and text that could not be copied onto another town's page without becoming false.
How many city pages should I have?
As many as you can fill with genuine substance, which for most businesses is a small number. Five real pages outperform thirty templated ones, and are far less risky.
Should I build city pages or improve my Google Business Profile first?
The profile, without hesitation. It influences the map results that carry most local enquiries, and it takes an afternoon. City pages are a slower play for reach the profile structurally cannot give you.