A city page is a page on your website for one town you serve, like "Roof Repair in Springfield." Here's the test from the video. Swap the city name. If the page still reads fine for the next town over, it isn't telling anybody anything about that town. It's a template in a Springfield hat.
This guide gives you the test step by step, what counts as a real difference, what to do when a page fails, a checklist to copy, and a prompt you can hand to Claude or ChatGPT. It's an editing check, not a full SEO audit. (SEO is the work of getting found on Google.) It won't promise rankings. It just catches lazy pages.
Why a swapped city name gives a page away
Lots of city pages are one page copied many times with the town name changed. Same promises, same photos, same "proud to serve this wonderful community." Apparently every town is wonderful. To a customer in that town, it's a page that could be about anywhere.
Google's spam rules describe the worst version of this. They call it doorway abuse, and one example on their list is "Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page." Another rule, scaled content abuse, includes "Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users."
Your page doesn't have to be spam to be weak. The swap test asks one simple thing: does this page tell a customer in this town something useful that the other page doesn't?
The swap test, step by step
Pick two city pages for nearby towns
Choose two towns close together. Those are the pages most likely to be copies of each other. Only have one city page? Compare it with your main services page instead.
Copy page A into a doc
Open the first page in your browser. Select the main text (skip the menu and the footer), copy it, and paste it into a new doc. Name the doc "SWAP TEST" so nobody mistakes it for the real page.
Swap the city name
WhereGoogle Docs: Edit → Find and replace. Other word processors have the same tool.Type town A in the find box and town B in the replace box. Click Replace all. Do it again for anything else that names the town: the county, a neighborhood, a ZIP code.
Read it as a customer in town B
Read the swapped page slowly. Mark every sentence that is now wrong for town B. A wrong sentence is good news. It means the page said something true about town A.
If nothing turned wrong, the page works for town B with no edits. That's the template in a Springfield hat.
Put the two real pages side by side
Now open both real pages next to each other. Go section by section and ask the question from the video: what does this tell a customer that the other page doesn't? Highlight anything that's only true for one town. Cross out anything that's on both pages with just the name changed.
Look at what's left
Is any of your highlighting one of the three real differences in the next section? If yes, that's what the page should lead with. If no, the page fails. Go to "When a page fails."
What counts as a real difference
Three things earn a city page its place. Each one has to be true. Leave out anything you can't back up.
| Real difference | What it looks like | Doesn't count |
|---|---|---|
| Services you really offer there | What you do in this town, and what you don't. A crew based nearby. A service you only offer in this area. | Your full services list with the town name on top. |
| Real jobs you can show | Work you actually did in this town: what the job was, and photos the customer said you could use. Name the neighborhood, not the address. | Stock photos. A job from another town. A made-up project. |
| A question people there actually ask | Something customers from this town ask your office, with a straight answer. If it's about a local rule, like a permit, link the town's or county's official page. | A question you made up to fit a search term. A rule you guessed at. |
Google's own list of questions for helpful pages backs up the second one, real jobs. It asks whether your content shows "first-hand expertise," like expertise "from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place." A job you really did in that town is exactly that.
Where to find your real differences
- Your job records. Sort past jobs by town. Your customer system (the CRM, the software where you track customers and jobs), your invoices or your calendar all work. Which jobs could you show, with the customer's OK?
- Your office and your crew. Ask whoever answers the phone: "What do people from this town ask us that others don't?" Write the questions down word for word, without names.
- What people searched. If you use Google Search Console (Google's free tool that shows the searches your site showed up for), open the Performance report for Search results. Click the Pages tab, then click your city page's row. That filters the report to that page. Then click the Queries tab to see the searches it showed up for.
- Official local pages. For a rule question, like permits, go to the town's or county's own website and link it. Don't guess.
When a page fails
A fail isn't a disaster. It just means the page has nothing to say yet. You have three honest options:
- Fix it. You found real differences. Rewrite the page so they come first: what you do there, a job you can show, the question people ask. Cut the copied paragraphs.
- Merge it. You do work in the town but have nothing specific to say yet. List the town on one service-area page (a single page with every town you cover) instead of giving it a page of its own.
- Wait. You haven't done work there yet. Don't build the page. Come back when you have real jobs to show.
"We want to show up in both cities" isn't a difference. It's a wish. Do more homework before you make the next batch of pages.
Copy this: the swap-test checklist
Print it or paste it into a note. Run it once for each pair of pages.
CITY PAGE SWAP TEST
Page A: ____________________
Page B: ____________________
THE SWAP
[ ] Copied page A into a doc
[ ] Swapped town A for town B
(county, ZIP, neighborhood too)
[ ] Sentences now WRONG for B: __
SIDE BY SIDE
[ ] Highlighted what's only true
for one town
[ ] Crossed out what's on both
REAL DIFFERENCES (true, provable)
[ ] Services we really offer there
[ ] Real jobs we can show (with OK)
[ ] A question people there ask
(rules: link the official page)
NOT DIFFERENCES
[ ] No town trivia
[ ] No made-up jobs or reviews
DECISION
[ ] Fix it [ ] Merge it [ ] WaitDo it with Claude or ChatGPT
Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT, then paste the text of your two pages where it says to. It runs the swap test with you and asks you for the real differences. It's told not to make them up. Leave out customer names, addresses and phone numbers.
Please help me run a "swap test" on two city pages from my business website. A city page is a page for one town we serve.
My business: [what you do, e.g. roofing]
Town A: [name]
Town B: [name]
PAGE A TEXT:
[paste the main text of page A]
PAGE B TEXT:
[paste the main text of page B]
Do this in order:
1. The swap: list every sentence on page A that would still be true, word for word, if I swapped Town A for Town B. Then do the same for page B.
2. Side by side: list anything that is only true for one town. Quote it.
3. Judge each page: does it tell a customer in that town something useful the other page doesn't? Say pass or fail, and why, in one or two sentences.
4. Ask me questions, one at a time, to find real differences. Only three kinds count: services we really offer in that town, real jobs we can show there (with the customer's permission), and questions people from that town actually ask us.
5. Then suggest one of three: fix the page (give me an outline that leads with the real differences), merge it into one service-area page, or wait until we have real work there.
Rules:
- Never invent jobs, photos, reviews, numbers or local facts. If you don't know something, ask me or write [NEED: ...].
- No town trivia (history, population, landmarks) unless it changes how the job gets done.
- If an answer depends on a local rule, like a permit, tell me to link the town's or county's official page. Don't guess the rule.
- Plain words and short sentences.Check what comes back. Anything it says about a town, a job or a rule should match your records or an official page. If it filled a gap with a guess, cut it.
Example (made up)
Everything here is made up: a fictional company and fictional towns.
Maple Street Roofing has a page for Springfield and a page for Shelbyville. Both open the same way:
Maple Street Roofing is proud to serve the wonderful community of Springfield with quality roofing you can trust.
Swap Springfield for Shelbyville and it still reads fine. Nothing turns wrong. That's a fail. Side by side, the only difference is a paragraph about the Springfield library. That's trivia, so it gets crossed out.
Then the owner checks the job list and asks the office manager what callers ask:
| What they found | Springfield | Shelbyville |
|---|---|---|
| Services there | Repairs and full replacements. The crew is based here. | Repairs only, for now. |
| Jobs they can show | Replacements on older homes, with photos the owners OK'd | None yet |
| A question people ask | "Can you match the shingles on an older house?" | "Do you come out this far for a small leak?" |
Springfield gets fixed. The page now opens with what's true there:
Most of our Springfield work is full replacements on older homes, and our crew is based here. A question we hear a lot: can you match the shingles on an older house? Here's how we handle it.
Shelbyville gets merged. It has a real question but no jobs to show. So it goes on the service-area page with one honest line, "Repairs only, for now," and an answer to the small-leak question. It can get its own page when there's real work to show.
Mistakes to avoid
- Fixing it with trivia. Different isn't the same as useful.
- Changing words instead of facts. Saying "proud to serve" a new way on every page still says nothing. Asking AI to "make each page unique" usually does just that.
- Faking the proof. No borrowed photos, no jobs from another town, no made-up reviews.
- Showing a customer's address. The neighborhood is enough. Ask before you use anyone's photos or name.
- Building pages for towns you've never worked in. Wait until you have something to say.
Tell me something useful about the job there
Swap the name, read it as a customer, and keep only what's true for that town. If there's nothing yet, wait. I already know the city name. I typed it.
Checked on Oct 4, 2026 against
Every claim about a third-party tool in this guide (plans, prices, menu paths, commands, limits) was checked against these official pages on Oct 4, 2026. These screens change often: if something looks different, trust the page over this guide.
- Google: Spam policies for web searchDoorway abuse and its city-pages example; scaled content abuse, including generative AI used "to generate many pages without adding value for users." Page last updated 2026-08-28.
- Google: Creating helpful, people-first contentThe people-first question about "first-hand expertise" from "having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place."
- Google: Redirects and Google Search"You removed a page and you want to send users to a new page" as a use for a redirect; 301 means a page has permanently moved.
- Google Docs Help: Find and replaceEdit → Find and replace, and Replace all.
- Search Console Help: Performance reportThe Queries and Pages tabs above the table.
- Search Console Help: Filtering the reportClick any row in a table to filter the report by that row.
- FTC: Reviews and Testimonials Rule Q&AIn effect since October 21, 2024; testimonials on a business's own website are "disseminating" them, and fake ones can make the business liable.
