I was recently searching for Mobile App developers in Austin when I realized a disturbing(?) new trend regarding location-specific pages on a website. I assume that it’s new because I hadn’t noticed a pattern in Google search results in this way before.

What are Location Specific Pages?

What I found was that several results showed up for companies that had an Austin-specific website page, but that didn’t have a physical office in, or anywhere near Austin. Thinking back, I have seen (and actually produced) something like that before, but it was with a company that was somewhat close. Meaning that a company based in Austin might have a location-specific page dedicated to Dripping Springs or Kyle – two suburbs just 30 minutes outside of Austin, that are serviced by Austin companies.

I’m always the curious type, so dug in further to find that these mobile app development companies had physical locations in exotic locales such as California and Delaware, nowhere near Austin or Texas even. Here are a couple of examples.

https://www.tekrevol.com/app-development-austin

https://www.appsocio.com/app-development-austin

Is it Deceiving to have Location-Specific Pages on a Website?

So, my burning question is this:

“Is it deceiving (or just plain lying) to prospective clients, for a company to put up a location-specific page when that company doesn’t have an office in or anywhere near that location?”

Would it be more acceptable if the above examples/companies added a statement to the page clarifying their intentions? Maybe something like “Although we don’t have an office in Austin, we do have existing clients there,” or “Although we don’t have an office in Austin, we are currently considering opening one there,” provided that each statement is true?

Am I just old-school and overthinking all of this? Is it really a conscious effort to mislead prospective clients by those companies? Should I instead be congratulating them for their efforts and trying the same strategy with my own business?

What do you think? Would you do something like that as a near-free way to promote your company? Do you think it is deceiving to have location-specific pages on a website? If you’d like to chat more about this topic, just contact me!