So lets take for example a website that does HVAC repair. They have a page built for each and every city. I.E - HVAC repair aliso viejo www.xyz.com/hvac-repair-aliso-viejo.php HVAC repair mission viejo www.xyz.com/hvac-repair-mission-viejo.php HVAC repair irvine www.xyz.com/hvac-repair-irvine.php Code (markup): Each and every page has the same content on them. The only difference in the pages is the Title has the different City, and the H1 tag has the different city. Other than that all the content is the same. However each page ranks very well in the search engines when searching for HVAC repair and the city name. How do these pages rank so well when all the content on each page is the same?
They might have some quality links pointed towards their domain, and then allow all the weight spread towards those small (and I suppose empty) pages. If the main page ranks well for "HVAC repair" then that's a big boost for all the inner pages. However, it should not be too difficult to out-rank those empty pages, if you manage to get some links towards your city-specific pages.