Re: Doorway Pages

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Tue 27 Feb 2001 22:07:53 -0600

WOLTER TJEENK WILLINK <WolterW_at_ISDC.NL> WROTE:

>Considering the dramatic changes in the
>way search engines index web sites the
>last couple of months, I wonder if the it's
>really worth spending time on getting higher
>rankings. It would make our lives a lot
>easier if there was a tool, tip or trick
>that did get us higher rankings and save
>us time.
>
>A few months ago I 'discovered' the
>phenomenon doorway pages. However, I don't
>have that much experience with this method,
>and would like to know if there's anyone out
>there who's already familiar with doorway
>pages and the way they work. I would really
>appreciate it if you could reply with some
>tips or examples.

Doorway pages are no longer as useful as they once
were. The reason, of course, is that they have been
abused. Traditional doorways had very little text on
them and often repeated the targeted keywords several
times. Usually they also had a common phrase like
"Click here for [targeted keywords]".

The search engines caught on to that trick over a year
ago and began filtering out such pages, in some cases
even banning whole domains.

Nowadays people still use doorways but most people try
to use them responsibly (creating only as many as needed,
not hundreds or thousands in order to deceive people).
And the current doorway model includes more content,
anywhere from 2 to 5 paragraphs of relevant text.

I suggest to people that they look at each page on their
Web site as a potential doorway. They should be sure
each page uses targeted, relevant keywords in the title
tag, description, first header, and in clearly visible
text near the top of the page. Many Web sites which
already have content pages have little need for doorways.
Those content pages should be optimized.

On the other hand, there are sites which devote a page to
inventory items, or which have dynamically generated pages.
These sites may very well benefit from doorways, but they
also run the risk of being identified as spammers if they
generate hundreds or thousands of doorways.

I recommend to people that they make their doorway pages
look like the rest of the main Web site: use the same
graphics, headings, and navigational code as regular pages.
Make the doorway pages SELL the visitor on why the rest of
the Web site's content is of interest. Those 2 or 3 short
paragraphs should be informative, using relevant keyword
phrases, and shouldn't use any hype. The doorways should
have multiple useful links to the rest of the main site,
and the site map should link to the doorway pages.

These are called content doorways and as long as they provide
some unique information they will be acceptable to search
engines.



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Received on Tue Feb 27 2001 - 22:07:53 CST