How to Scale Local SEO Without Spam
Addressing concerns about AI content, mass pages, and penalty risks.
The Fear Is Understandable
You've seen scaled content go wrong. Article spinners, mass page generators, AI content mills. Quick wins followed by penalties. So when someone mentions "programmatic SEO," the concern is natural.
What Google Actually Penalizes
What Makes Scaled Content Legitimate
Genuine Differentiation
Each page is meaningfully different based on real differences between locations, not just city names.
User Value
Would someone from this location find the page helpful? Does it answer their questions?
Human Oversight
Review of templates and outputs catches errors and ensures quality before publishing.
AI Content: The Reality
AI-generated content isn't inherently against Google's guidelines. What matters is whether the content is helpful, regardless of how it was created.
"Our focus on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced, is a useful guide that has helped us deliver reliable, high quality results to users for years."
Risk Mitigation Strategies
Staged rollout
Launch in batches, monitor, then continue
Quality thresholds
Minimum standards before pages go live
Regular audits
Review and update published content
Diverse signals
Support with other content and links