City × service pages that actually rank: a 12-element checklist

## The audit

We pulled the top 3 organic results for 300 "[service] in [city]" queries across 15 metros. Then we extracted 40+ page features and ranked them by frequency of appearance.

## The 12 elements present in 80%+ of winners

1. **H1 contains both service and city** verbatim
2. **Definition block** in the first 200 words
3. **Local context** — at least one mention of a neighborhood, landmark, or local regulation
4. **Service area list** — surrounding cities and ZIPs
5. **5+ FAQ pairs** with FAQPage schema
6. **Customer reviews block** with Review schema and 4+ items
7. **Pricing or "starting at" indicator** — even if a range
8. **Process or HowTo steps** (3–7 steps)
9. **Trust badges or certifications**
10. **Phone number above the fold**
11. **Internal link to the parent service hub** + 2–3 sibling cities
12. **Last-updated date** in the page footer

## What didn't matter

Word count past 800. Image count past 4. Video presence (only ~30% of winners had video).

## How to implement at scale

The hard part isn't the checklist — it's enforcing it across 50+ pages without producing thin or duplicate content. Local Pages bakes all 12 elements into every generated page and runs a weekly SEO Lab audit to keep them in compliance.