In light of the engines' anti-spamming campaigns, many people have questioned the effectiveness of doorway pages. Let’s face it, the doorway pages of yesteryear, a time when cloned pages multiplied faster than weeds in an abandoned field, are no longer effective.
Before we go any further, let’s define what we mean by “doorway” pages.
What are doorway pages?
Simply put, doorway pages are HTML documents that are fine-tuned and optimized for one keyword phrase only -- and generally for one specific engine. Every component of the doorway page is assembled to highlight a single keyword phrase.
In addition, doorway pages direct traffic into your site and usually are not visibly linked from the main page. Interior pages, on the other hand, are visibly linked from the main page so that traffic comes in from the engines as well as from the main page of the site itself.
Defined like that, most would agree there is nothing particularly devious about doorway pages. However, let’s look at it from the search engines’ point of view.
Fact: Some web designers create hundreds of HTML documents that contain just a single keyword phrase slapped in the middle of a page. They've also been known to overload META keyword and description tags with a single keyword phrase and even use lightning fast META refresh tags to transport visitors from the "doorway" to the “real” site. Most search engines see this as abuse of the doorway page strategy and therefore doorway pages have gotten a bad rap.
From the search engines' point of view, other dubious tactics include:
- Optimizing pages for keywords that have nothing to do with the content of the page itself;
- Creating dozens of almost identical pages using the same text, with only the keywords swapped out;
- Creating numerous pages that are optimized for the same keyword phrase in an attempt to dominate the rankings;
- Using techniques, such as keyword stuffing, tiny text, hidden text, and excessive keyword weight;
...all of which are considered by the search engines to be the most blatant of spamming techniques.
Purpose of doorway pages
You might be asking, "Since doorway pages are disliked by search engines, why don’t we forget about using them altogether?"
Well, in some cases, that’s certainly possible. If your site's topic lends itself to being created in such a way that you can optimize various interior pages for every one of your important keyword phrases and get top rankings across the engines, you're lucky -- go for it! However, most of us generally are not that fortunate.
Here are some very legitimate reasons for using doorway pages:
- Since search engines tend to favor pages that are optimized for very specific terms while companies tend to sell a variety of products and services, doorway pages that focus on specificity can enable a customer to find a single item within a site that offers multiple products. Example: a doorway page optimized for windshield wipers might allow a customer to find windshield wipers within an automotive supply store that sells hundreds of replacement parts for cars.
- Doorway pages can also be used to create content-rich pages that the engines like when existing pages don’t have enough "content" to be effectively optimized. To explain this further consider the example above. Ironically, for some search engines the "windshield wiper" page may not be content rich enough. If the site consists primarily of an automotive catalog then most of the pages may in fact be nothing more than product descriptions. That being the case certain doorway pages could be created that simply list the most sought after items in an automotive catalog and include links to those items. While this strategy might seem opposite to the one in the first example one must consider the fact that "relevant content" to one engine can mean "lost-in-the-shuffle" to another.
- Most importantly, doorway pages can serve as “work arounds” if the website utilizes advanced design techniques that are counter-productive to search engine ranking. Prime examples would be pages that utilize frames, dynamic content, lengthy JavaScript, and so on. In order to score well on the engines, sites that use these page design components must use doorway techniques -- they really don't have a choice.
Again, the automotive catalog site would be an excellent example. Such a site would likely utilize on-the-fly page creation (.asp pages) dependent upon, perhaps, the year and model of car. Such visitor input variables would dictate what pages the server will supply to the site visitor. Search engines choke on these variables -- i.e. they don't know what to do with them and are therefore unable to index pages that use them. Therefore, doorway pages are the ONLY way this type of site can expect to be found on the engines.
So, how can we use doorway pages to accomplish our objectives without getting in trouble with the search engines?
First off, we need to rethink our “doorway page” strategies, beginning with simple terminology.
Don’t call them “doorway” pages - call them “information” pages
In a recent interview with Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch, I asked him how the search engines felt about content-rich doorway pages. His answer was interesting...
Excellent point: Since every page is essentially a doorway into your site anyway, concentrate on building content.
And, since content is so important these days, let’s take it a step further and get rid of the name that seems to present so many problems. Instead, let’s call our doorway pages information pages.
Information pages?
When creating additional doorways into your site, approach the task as if you’re writing an article about a particular topic. Your pages will now become content-rich information pages. Now you’re giving the engines just what they want to see these days: content.
In your information pages, include all of the positive aspects of doorway pages and toss out the negative. In other words, your information pages should:
- Be highly fine-tuned content-rich pages that are optimized for one keyword phrase only -- and usually designed specifically for only one engine;
- Contain links to your main site as well as links to other “related” pages in an effort to boost relevancy and link popularity;
- Feature attention grabbing content. Examples could include freebies, contests, useful information, and value added bonuses, whenever appropriate.
- Be designed according to the general formatting of your existing site minus the advanced design styles that might adversely affect ranking -- i.e., frames, dynamic content, .asp pages, etc..
Another consideration is to use a robots.txt file to keep certain engines out of your engine-specific optimized pages. This is intended to prevent them from finding several nearly identical pages and jump to the automated conclusion that you are spamming their index.
To insure staying on the good side of the search engines, your information pages should not:
- Be duplications of other pages with just the keywords swapped out;
- Be “cookie-cutter” pages such as those generated by various doorway page generator programs;
- Use META refresh tags. However, if you must use a redirect tag choose a JavaScript redirect instead;
- Use any of the blatant spamming techniques mentioned above.
In Conclusion . . .
As stated very clearly at a recent search engine conference, “Content is king.” That's the one point on which all search engines (and directories) agree.
Therefore, focus on delivering content within your site. Work smart. Intelligently optimize your pages. Use terminology that produces a favorable response. And, most importantly, give the engines what they want - content-rich information pages -- and they’ll likely give you what you want; top rankings for your selected keywords and phrases.
This article was written by Robin Nobles, Director of Training at the Academy of Web SpecialistsTM. Over the past few years, she has trained over 1000 people in her online and onsite courses in search engine positioning strategies and has written three books that can be ordered through Amazon. Visit the Academy's training Website to learn more about their online courses: http://www.onlinewebtraining.com.
This article first published by Planet Ocean in their Search Engine News Update Newsletter (http://www.searchenginehelp.com/acws).
