Smae Category Descriptions but in Different Cities

[EBKMarketing]

Hi,

I was curious, if I have a guide with 20 categories, and that guide is in 10 different cities, can I have a category description for each city that simply swaps out the city name?

Seattle Big Widgets
We offer the largest selection of widgets in the Seattle area.  We have small widgets, medium widgets, large widgets. We have so many widgets, most people in Seattle are blown away by our selection.

Portland Big Widgets We offer the largest selection of widgets in the Portland area.  We have small widgets, medium widgets, large widgets. We have so many widgets, most people in Portland are blown away by our selection.

Would this be considered duplicate content, if it's followed by distinct city listings?

Writing 20 decriptions would be nicer than writing 200. Just trying to think about SEO, resources, best use of time, etc.

Thanks

[GastonRiera]

Hi there,

altough is tecnicaly different, the differece is minimum and it might be considered as automated data. It is risky.

You can do those 200 descriptions, do them. I'd not take the chance of google seeing them wrong.

Hope it helps.
GR.

[Chris_Hickman]

Good question. We're undertaking a similar project now. It's in your best interest to avoid any possibility of duplicate content, even if it's just a little bit of content.

A simple description such as your example along with local listings is not enough content to make the page a quality resource in the eyes of Google. Ideally you would tailor each category with unique and relevant content. I would recommend a few more paragraphs and unique images. It will be time consuming, but you'll get much better SEO results.

I would also recommend you interlink categories for nearby cities. I hope these suggestions help and wish you the best on your project.

[EBKMarketing]

Thanks so much for your feedback.

What I was not sure about was that if we are providing listings and the ability to filter based on certain criteria, will users really read the content, and will they find it valuable.

It's like if you are searching for hotels in Seattle, you know you want to go to Seattle, so how much text would you actually read about how great Seattle is, when you just want to narrow in and find the perfect hotel? do you know what I mean?

We will have blog posts for our top categories as well, so hopefully that helps as well.

Cheers

[EBKMarketing]

Thank you so much for your feedback.