On-site duplication working - not penalised - any ideas?

[MagicianUK]

I've noticed a website that has been set up with many virtually identical pages.  For example many of them have the same content (minimal text, three video clips) and only the town name varies.  Surely this is something that Google would be against?  However the site is consistently ranking near the top of Google page 1, e.g. http://www.maxcurd.co.uk/magician-guildford.html for "magician Guildford", http://www.maxcurd.co.uk/magician-ascot.html for "magician Ascot" and so on (even when searching without localisation or personalisation).

For years I've heard SEO experts say that this sort of thing is frowned on and that they will get penalised, but it never seems to happen.  I guess there must be some other reason that this site is ranked highly - any ideas?  The content is massively duplicated and the blog hasn't been updated since 2012 but it is ranking above many established older sites that have lots of varied content, good quality backlinks and regular updates.

Thanks.

[EGOL]

Google has been killing sites with lots of cookie-cutter pages for at least 8 to 10 years.  In busy niches they get killed quickly.  In sleepy niches they can persist a lot longer.

For years I've heard SEO experts say that this sort of thing is frowned on and that they will get penalised, but it never seems to happen.

Those experts are right nearly 100% of the time.  These sites rarely survive today.  So, I think that your use of the term "never seems to happen" is because you are frustrated with this guy.

On rare instances, I see a site like this persist in the SERPs of a sleepy niche for years and years.  They often have a lot of people talking about them, giving them lots of social attention, citations, mentions, etc.  I believe that may have something to do with why they survive.

Have you seen this guy perform?   If you haven't, maybe you should.

[Antony_Towle]

(My Experience) I am having the exact same problem currently,

It is an absolute nightmare being outranked by a poor site, with poor content and a poor user experience,

However through Moz advice i have been told to keep doing what we are doing publishing quality content the right way and focus on the quality of your website, making improvements,building links and you will be rewarded,

Nobody can escape the Panda forever

http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-panda-update

Hope this helps a little,

James

[JaneCopland]

Egol is right - pages like this can persist in quieter niches, especially if there are not a huge number of other results to take the thin results' place. I notice that this guy's page for London has a lot more content, probably indicative of the fact that the competition for rankings and business is a lot higher in London than it is in surrounding areas.