Search engines are pretty picky about doorway pages. Google made it clear on their webmaster guidelines that such pages are automatically blocked and eliminated from the index, which also stops them from search results.
We know that Google continually updates algorithms to ensure a better user experience and the calibre of results returned to satisfy users’ demands.
The “doorway pages update,” one of its most recent algorithmic changes, aims to get rid of webspam. Google is aware and fast enough to deal with websites that carry extensive and well-established gateway marketing.
What are SEO Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are pages on your website specifically made to rank for certain search terms.
These pages serve as a “doorway” to the main content or website and carry no benefit to your audiences. The meta refreshes and a very brief redirect to another page occurs, which might sometimes be part of this strategy when visitors click these pages.
Example of SEO Doorway Pages
Doorway pages sometimes referred to as jump pages, entry pages or bridge pages are a series of landing pages that lead to the same objective. Both don’t share the same purpose.
Here are examples of doorway pages.
A page that Only Contain Ads or Redirection Button to Another Page
Have you experienced this?
That’s doorway pages for you. They will lead you to one side of the page and leave you with information that is not beneficial to you.
A page that Contains Many Keywords with Thin Content
Keyword stuffing is a crime. And we guess you are guilty of it at some point in your SEO campaign journey.
Who wasn’t?
We all want to get Google’s approval and rank satisfactorily on SERPs. One way to do this is to incorporate all keywords in one piece of content that doesn’t even add value or make sense at all!
We recommend you not do this if you are starting to do SEO or SEM campaigns for your brand. You will suffer the consequences once. Worst, you’ll get notified for violating rules or penalised for doing this strategy.
Create content or publication materials that speak value and highlight your brand’s strength. If you can, produce long-form content that you can repurpose into tidbits of information to spread across your social media platforms in the future.
Page with Geo-Targeting Keyword List but Redirect User to One Same Page
Understanding your users’ locations and delivering content or advertisements directed to them is what makes geo-targeting an essential SEO campaign strategy.
With the use of geotargeting, you can identify your target market and the methods you need to use to connect with them.
But how do some webmasters take advantage of this?
Online businesses that rely on Black Hat SEO and an avid supporter of doorway pages turn this strategy to deceive their visitors.
For example, your content uses keywords like Digital marketing agency Singapore, Digital marketing agency Malaysia, and Digital Marketing agency Indonesia yet these phrases lead users to the same pages when they click it you already subscribed to this doorway page bad strategy.
Keep in mind that geo-targeting is integral to your local SEO campaign. Using a geo-targeting keyword list but redirecting users to the same page to gain traction causes more harm than good to your brand’s reputation.
Why Are Doorway Pages Bad for SEO?
The idea that there are “good” and “bad” gateway page kinds is another common misunderstanding regarding them.
Most doorway pages are “bad” BlackHat doorway pages, but there are also some “good” WhiteHat doorway pages that can be utilised safely and effectively.
Bad User Experience
How would you rate a website that promises to offer you reliable information, yet leads you to pages that contain irrelevant data?
Websites that bank on doorway pages deceive visitors or lure them into pages they don’t need. This will only consume your time and confuse you.
Bad user experience ruins a business’s online presence and reputation. Your content must give your visitors or consumers valuable insights and you must be a credible source of information online.
Involve Deception to User and Search Engine
Doorway pages use deception, which is against a fundamental Google rule: never deceive the user.
Google developed the following list of queries for webmasters to ask themselves to identify a potential doorway page as part of its training for webmasters:
- Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site’s user experience?
- Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very specific?
- Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site to capture more search traffic?
- Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without creating unique value in content or functionality?
- Do these pages exist as an “island?” Are they difficult or impossible to navigate from other parts of your site?
- Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or a network of sites created just for search engines?
Not Inline with Google Algorithm Update
Google assures its users it delivers quality results; thus, algorithm update is necessary and something that they strictly adhere to because it matters to bar spammy and suspicious resources.
They understood that business websites’ make an effort to increase their “search footprint” without clearly providing anything special; thus, leaning toward creating doorway pages.
These doorway campaigns may appear as individual web pages, as a collection of domains, or as a combination of both.
SEO Doorway Pages VS Landing Pages?
What is a Landing Page?
Landing pages give a website visitor specific and pertinent information.
They are intended to support the searcher’s aim, whether it be to learn something new, buy something, or carry out a certain action. If you are unsure about it, you can try to hire digital marketing agency with landing page services.
The Difference Between Doorway Page and Landing Page
Here’s the primary distinction between landing pages and doorway pages:
- Doorway pages are designed to clog up search engine indexes by constructing pages to rank for a particular keyword or keyword phrase, but you’re misleading and deceiving the visitor because they have to go farther to accomplish their objectives. The doorway pages’ user experience will be bad and will negatively impact your website!
- Landing pages are designed to draw attention to a certain product or service you offer, and once a visitor enters the page, they will accomplish their visit’s objective. This simply means that you are helping the search engine and your prospective clients get what they deserve.
How to Improve SEO Ranking Without Doorway Pages
Feed Your Website with Valuable Content
Google dislikes websites with several pages of content that are similar, such as multiple pages that are centred on a single place and target various keyphrases.
Keep in mind to produce original material that appeals to users in each place and includes user reviews and relevant information. Only create new pages if you’re giving your visitors something special.
Be an industry leader for key resources online. This is one way to beat and stay in the competition.
Make Sure Your Website Offers a Good User Experience
What everyone wants these days! A valuable website that offers a brilliant user experience.
Never gamble on hard-to-find pages on your site. We know that you want visitors to stay longer on your site, but doing this will harm impressions in so many ways.
Remember that users go to the internet for a quick fix. They will appreciate sites that waste their time. Instant is the name of the game.
If you provide your visitors with pages that they can navigate easily from one page to another, they will keep on coming back to you.
Do Link Building
Do link building the right and legal way.
If you want to establish your site as one of the most Googled in your industry, think of building relationships with reputable and credible websites.
White Hat SEO link building is one way to improve your website’s health and raise brand awareness.
Avoid keyword stuffing your content. You’ll get penalised. This is something you wouldn’t want to happen to your company’s website.
Instead, you may optimise your pages with specialised long-tail keywords rather than attempting to rank for broad keyphrases. This is preferable for increasing the quality of visitors to your website.
Final Thoughts
The less you deal with it, the farther you are prone to be penalised. Doorway pages are a tactic that may violate strict Google guidelines. If you continue to engage in such activity, you will suffer having your site down forever.
Just because it’s popular, doesn’t mean it’s for everybody’s consumption. Competition may be tough and new algorithm updates tend to challenge all of your strategies but it doesn’t mean you should go the easy way.
Plan your strategy.
Reach us if you want to know how we can help you craft your content and fix your website for you.
FAQ
Are Doorway Pages Good for SEO?
No. Doorway pages are an example of black hat SEO, which refers to techniques that violate search engine guidelines, drastically harm your SEO rankings, and even result in the blacklisting of your website.
What is an example of a doorway page?
– A page that Only Contain Ads or Redirection Button to Another Page
– A page that Contains Many Keywords with Thin Content
– Page with Geo-Targeting Keyword List but Redirect User to One Same Page
What is the difference between a search landing page and a doorway page?
Doorway pages have a lot of keyword variations, connections to pages that are similar to them, and occasionally feature those direct viewers to different locations on the internet.
Unlike landing pages, doorway pages hinder visitors who want to go right to a product or get an answer to their inquiry while being used to increase website traffic.
Do more pages mean better SEO?
More Pages Do Not Always Result in Higher Keyword Rankings
Many websites with high ranks have a lot of pages and content, which gives rise to the misconception that more pages mean higher keyword rankings.
But you will understand the more you do your campaign strategy to boost your brand’s name, you’ll see that the pages and content are wonderfully designed to provide value before rankings.
You’ll frequently see that websites with a lot of pages only send traffic to a small portion of the pages that are most useful to visitors.
