What Google's policies say
Google's spam policies, last updated August 28, 2026, define doorway abuse as sites or pages created to rank for specific, similar search queries that lead users to intermediate pages less useful than the final destination. One listed example is pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. Another is creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy.
The same policies define scaled content abuse as many pages generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings, no matter how they are created. Google says sites that violate its policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. A batch of fifty city pages built from one template, by a person or by an AI tool, fits that description closely. Whether AI wrote them is a separate question, covered in whether Google penalizes AI-written firm content.
What makes a city page worth keeping
A city or county page earns its place when a reader there would learn something they could not get from your main practice page:
- The right courtThe courthouse that hears the matter, with a name and address checked against the court system's own site.
- The local processFiling steps, local forms, or scheduling that differ from the rest of the state.
- Honest coverageWhere your attorneys are licensed and where the firm actually takes clients.
- Local questionsThe questions people in that place ask, which are not always the ones asked statewide.
From our work, one strong county page that names the towns it serves usually beats a page per town. Treat that as a working hypothesis to test on your own site. The Raleigh market guide shows the approach for a county with many town names.
A city page also does not create an office. Google's Business Profile guidelines say a service-area business should have one profile for its central office with a designated service area, so your pages and your profile should describe the same footprint. More on that in why a Business Profile matters for AI search.
Go deeper
The AI SEO guide for lawyers covers site architecture, including when location pages help.