The short answerA service-area page is one page about one service in one town you cover, for somebody who searches for exactly that. They are worth having if you work in several towns and each page says something real about the work you do there. Dozens of near-identical pages with only the town name swapped are what Google calls doorway pages, and its spam policies are aimed at them.
Why they exist
A business that drives to its customers may be based in one town and do half its work in three others. Its home page and its Google Business Profile are tied to the base. A page about "water heater replacement" in a specific neighboring town gives a searcher there something that matches what they typed.
What a good one contains
The test is whether a person in that town would find the page more useful than your general service page. If the only difference is the town name in the heading, they would not.
- The service and the town in the page title and the main heading.
- What the job involves, in your own words.
- Something true about working there: common housing ages or types, water hardness, soil, weather exposure, permit or inspection steps, how far you are and how soon you usually arrive.
- A job you actually did there, with a photo, where you have the customer's permission.
- A review from a customer in that town, if you have one.
- Your phone number and a short form.
- Links to the main service page and to your other areas.
The line between useful and spam
Google's spam policies describe doorway pages as pages made to rank for specific similar searches that funnel visitors to the same place without offering distinct value. A classic example is many pages for different towns that are otherwise the same.
So the rule is not "no town pages". It is "no empty town pages". Do not make pages for places you do not serve. Do not generate hundreds from a template. Do not list town names in a paragraph to catch searches. Each of those is easy to spot, for Google and for a customer.
How many, and which first
Fewer and better. Start with the combinations that matter to your business: your most valuable service in the towns where you most want work. Three good pages are worth more than thirty thin ones.
If you cannot think of anything different to say about a town, it does not need its own page yet. Name it in the list of areas on your main service page and move on. Write a proper page for each main service before any town pages.
How to tell if they are doing anything
Google Search Console is free and shows which searches your pages appeared for and how often they were clicked. Look a new page up there after a couple of months. Search moves slowly, so judge in months.
Writing these well takes time. On a site I built, a new town page is new work, so I quote it as a fixed price before I start, written from the owner's own details.
Questions people ask
Are city landing pages against Google's rules?
Not by themselves. Pages with distinct, useful content about a service in a place are fine. Near-duplicate pages that only swap the town name fall under Google's doorway page policy.
How long should a service-area page be?
Long enough to say what is true and specific, and no longer. A few solid paragraphs, a photo and an FAQ are usually enough.
Do I need a separate Google Business Profile for each town?
No, and you should not create one for a place where you have no real location. One profile with an accurate service area is the correct setup for a business that travels.