Location pages: when a park should build one, and when it should not.
A page per nearby town works for a plumber who drives there. A park is in one place, and the pattern that helps the plumber hurts the park.
IN ONE PARAGRAPH
A business that serves several towns builds a page for each, because each is a real place it works. A park is one place, so a page per surrounding town is a page about somewhere the park is not, and it fills with the same text swapped. Google recognizes the pattern and discounts it. What works for a park is one strong page about its own location, and pages about the things nearby that guests come for: the national park entrance, the lake, the trail system, the town's main street. Those are real, they differ, and guests search them.
When a location page is legitimate
- Your own town. The homepage or an about-the-area page that says exactly where the park is, what it is near, and how to get there. Every park should have this.
- A destination guests come for. "Camping near the west entrance to Yellowstone." "RV sites on the Arkansas River." "Stay near Willow Lake." These are real places the park is actually at or beside, and each page can be specific.
- Two parks, two towns. An owner with parks in different places builds a page or a site for each, because each is real.
What a good one looks like
An area page for a park near the west entrance to Yellowstone, in outline. Title: "Camping near the West Entrance to Yellowstone, Grizzly RV Park, West Yellowstone MT." First paragraph: the park is four blocks from the gate, six minutes with the morning line. Then the facts a guest plans around:
- Drive times: the gate, 6 minutes. Old Faithful, 45 minutes. Bozeman airport, 90 minutes.
- The road in: paved, no tight turns, big rigs fine.
- Supplies: grocery and propane in town, 4 minutes. Dump station on site.
- Season: gate opens mid-April, the park opens May 1, closes mid-October.
- The park's own recommendations, by name.
That page ranks for "camping near west entrance Yellowstone" because it is the only page on the web that says those specific things from that specific spot. Ten pages saying "RV park near [town]" for towns an hour away would not.
When it is not
A page for each town within an hour: "RV park near Salida," "RV park near Leadville," "RV park near Fairplay," for a park in Buena Vista. The park is not in any of them. The pages have nothing true to say beyond the drive time, so they repeat. Google has been reducing the value of exactly this pattern since 2020, and a cluster of them can lower the site as a whole. Near-duplicate content, explained.
What a good area page says
Where the park is, in the words a guest uses, and what is near it with distances and drive times: the entrance, the lake, the trailhead, the grocery store, the hospital, the dump station in town. The road in, with any turns a big rig should know about. The season and what the weather does. What the park recommends, by name. That page ranks for the area searches because it is the only page on the web that says those specific things about that specific spot.
What it costs a park
Town pages cost maintenance and reputation with Google for no ranking. A missing area page costs the destination searches: "camping near [attraction]" is often the biggest search a park could win, and a park with no page that says it plainly does not appear.
How to check your own
- List your pages. If several are the same page with different town names, that is the pattern to remove.
- Ask whether any page on your site plainly says the destination guests come for, with a distance. If not, that page is missing.
- Search "camping near [your attraction]" and see who ranks. Read their page.
What we do about it
We build one area page per park, written from the owner's directions and recommendations, and destination pages where a park has a real one, like the Yellowstone gate for Grizzly RV Park. We do not build town-swap pages, and we forward them to the real page when we take over a site that has them.
Questions about this.
Should my RV park have a page for each nearby town?
No. A park is in one place, and pages for towns it is not in fill with repeated text that Google marks down. Build one strong page about your own location and pages about the real destinations guests come for.
What is a good location page for a campground?
One that says exactly where the park is, what it is near with distances and drive times, how to get there including the road in, and what the park recommends nearby. Specific facts about one real place.
Can I have a page about the national park near me?
Yes, if guests come to your park to visit it. A page about camping near that entrance, with the distance, the drive, and what to know, is a real destination page and ranks for real searches.
We already have town pages. Should we delete them?
Forward them to the page they were imitating, usually the homepage or the area page, so any links they earned carry over. Then replace them with pages per kind of guest.
Want this done for your park?
This is the ongoing work in the Marketing band. Tell us about your park and we will say what we would build first. SEO for parks starts at $250 a month.
Part of the RV park SEO guide, section: What grows a park site. Previous: One page per kind of guest, not one page for everyone. Next: FAQ sections: the questions guests ask, answered where machines can read them.