Duplicate content showing on local pages

[Cocoonfxmedia]

I have several pages which are showing duplicate content on my site for web design. As its a very competitive market I had create some local pages so I rank high if someone is searching locally i.e web design birmingham, web design tamworth etc..

http://www.cocoonfxmedia.co.uk/web-design.html

http://www.cocoonfxmedia.co.uk/web-design-tamworth.html

http://www.cocoonfxmedia.co.uk/web-design-lichfield.html

I am trying to work out what is the best way reduce the duplicate content. What would be the best way to remove the duplicate content?

1. 301 redirect (will I lose the existing page)  to my main web design page with the geographic areas mentioned.

2. Re write the wording on each page and make it unique?

Any assistance is much appreciated.

[Alex-Harford]

In most cases I've seen I'd say make the content on each page unique, but in your case I'd say 301 them to the main page where you're based (yes, you will 'lose' them if you 301). You're misleading customers - your search result for [lichfield web design] for example would give potential clients the impression that you're based in Lichfield, and when they click through to see you're not some are likely to press 'back' straight away. Increased bounce rates can lower your search rankings.

Also, I wouldn't write like this "At every stage of the creation of your web design Tamworth and web development process" - it looks spammy and you should really be writing for people, using natural language. I'd imagine that sort of wording is likely to put some clients off. It's not necessary to keyword stuff, you can write natural content that still uses your keywords, and they don't have to be together. "We are a web design company based in Tamworth" does the trick, sounds natural, and keeps the 3 words close together. "Web Design Tamworth" is okay in the title for me, though some may disagree.

If you visit potential clients that could be a way you could naturally get the other locations onto your main location page ("Serving Tamworth, Lichfield and Stafford" for example) or you could say "only xx miles from Lichfield", or give directions if you have a public-facing office. I wouldn't list too many places though as again, it will look spammy.

[Andropenis_Australia]

I would say for sure number 2. Re-write/word the pages and use it as a chance to put some more fresh content in as well.

All the best