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40 location pages, almost zero clicks, but we're ranking locally. Consolidate or keep?

I run SEO for a digital marketing agency. We're based in a major city, serve clients nationally, but have a physical office here, so at some point it made sense to build out location pages for smaller cities nearby. Suburbs, smaller towns, that kind of thing. About 40 pages within a 50-100 mile radius.

The data is rough. 16 months of GSC and most of these pages have single-digit clicks. GA4 is no better.

Here's what's messing with my head though. When I search incognito from within those cities, "[city] marketing agency," we're showing up 3rd or 4th place on a good chunk of them. A few are even pulling map pack appearances, which is weird because our GMB links to the main city page, not the local one.

So the pages look dead in the data but seem to be doing something.

My instinct is to kill most of them and redirect. I'm one person, big client roster, these pages haven't been properly touched in months and probably won't be. A neglected thin page that slowly decays feels worse than no page at all to me. But I keep second-guessing myself when I see us ranking locally.

Before I pull the trigger I want to understand a couple things. I know 301s pass link equity but I'm less sure about local signals specifically. Anyone have data or a real test case on whether map pack presence survives a consolidation? Is noindexing a middle ground worth considering, keep the URL alive as a GMB landing page but pull it out of organic competition? And has anyone actually tested whether one consolidated strong page beats four mediocre ones for local rankings?

Genuinely asking because I've gone back and forth on this too many times.

submitted by /u/Future_Rossine
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from Search Engine Optimization: The Latest SEO News https://ift.tt/v1Inosc
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