Doorway pages
The Why
Doorway pages, entry pages, leader pages, whatever you want
to call it. It's a technique that has been used by webmasters
in the past to trick the
search engines into ranking them higher.
They would create one page optimized with 1-3 keyword phrases
for each of the search engines. Thanks in part to Google the
effectiveness of doorway pages has diminished over the past
few years. Now with innovations like link popularity and themed
sites doorway pages are no longer the sure fire winner they
used to be.
Some people totally trash doorway pages saying that they are
spam and that it shouldn't be allowed. Personally I don't have
anything against doorway pages, if they are done right. Sites
with mostly or all dynamic pages or otherwise sites that are
unable to be spidered pretty much have to rely on doorway pages
to make it into the search engines. If you are not very careful
you could find yourself getting demoted in ranking or banned
altogether for using doorway pages inappropriately.
Here are a couple examples of unethical use of doorway page:
1. Keyword stuffing doorway pages. It is obvious why this would
be done. Intentionally trying to trick the search engines isn't
a very smart move. You may get away with it, but you are not
doing yourself any favors. Think of long-term investments in
your website and not short-term spamming of the search engines.
2. Pages hosted on a different server than your own. These pages
are normally "optimized" to gain higher search engine
rankings and then redirected to your website. This technique
is usually done by an unethical Search Engine Optimization company.
The Fix
I'll call this section The Fix; however it's more like The Solution.
Like I said earlier I don't have a problem with doorway pages
as long as they are done right. If you absolutely need to use
doorway pages ensure that you present unique and relevant information
and you won't be banned.
Be aware of the SEO companies out there that will convince
you that they can create these fabulous doorway pages that will
get you ranked at the top of the search engines. They will try
to convince you that by creating dozens of these "optimized"
pages you will dominate you search engines for your keywords.
Disclaimer: I may get flamed for this topic as some people
think that a doorway page are actually index.html pages. This
can be true but for the sole purpose of this page is to explain
the unethical aspects of using these types of pages we call
doorway pages.
