# Local content and URL guidance

## Useful service and local information

Write pages that answer real questions about a service in an area the business serves. Explain the scope, relevant constraints and details that help a visitor make an enquiry.

Use accurate service areas and business information. Do not invent offices, local jobs, customer reviews or location-specific claims. Changing only a suburb name is not enough to make a useful, distinct page.

## Clear search information

Give each page a descriptive title, meaningful headings and relevant internal links. Keep canonical URLs, status codes, sitemap entries and structured data consistent with the actual page and business information.

Search-friendly implementation supports discovery; it does not guarantee a ranking or a particular number of enquiries.

## Preserve useful URLs

When changing a website, record existing destinations and map them to relevant replacements. Where a redirect is required, send visitors to a page that answers the same or a closely related question. Test historical links as well as the main navigation.

Keep development pages separate from the customer website and use indexing controls appropriate to each environment.

## Further reading

- [Google Search Essentials](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials)
- [Google spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)
- [Google website migration guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes)

Reference date: 29 September 2026.