Answers
Jul 21, 2016 - 04:54 PM
Doorway pages are Web pages designed and built specifically to draw search engine visitors to your website. They are standalone pages designed only to act as doorways to your site. Doorway pages are a very bad idea for several reasons, though many SEO firms use them routinely.
As a rule of thumb, if you can't reach the page by following the site navigation, then it is a doorway page. You are not supposed to "visit" the page. Instead, you are just supposed to find it in the search results and then click through to get to the site in question. In essence, a doorway page is no more than a one-page click-through advertisement for a website.
However, when you are searching, you don't want to visit one-page click-through advertisements for a website. You want to visit websites. Think of doorway pages as giant banner ads, only worse. You're searching for "widgets" and instead of getting a widget site, you get a page that says, "click here for widgets." You just did that! Now they're asking you to do it again. Are you going to click?
The fact is that doorway pages don't do a very good job of generating traffic, even when they are done by "experts." Many users simply hit their back buttons when presented with a doorway page. Still, many SEO firms count those first visits and report them to their clients as successes. SEO Firm: "You got 140 visits to your site today!" Client: "But no one visited our products pages!"
Can you spot the doorway page? Look at the site map below. There are three doorway pages on the site. Can you spot them? You should know that Google can spot them just as easily.
Is it a Doorway Page or just another Web page? Is the page an integral part of the contents of your website?
Do you link to the page in your site navigation?
If "Yes, Yes, " then the page is not a doorway page. If "No, No, " then the page is a doorway page.
Google has some very clearly stated opinions about doorway pages. We suggest you read them before even thinking about using doorway pages in your Web marketing efforts.
So, why do SEO firms build doorway pages?
Some SEO firms may be relying on commercially available software to help them perform their tasks. One common example is WebPosition Gold, which has a very useful position checking feature. Unfortunately, WebPosition Gold also has a "Page Generator" feature that will create doorway pages as fast as you can type (or copy and paste), then upload them to your site, and even submit them to the search engines. Avoid those features.
If you ask them, people working at firms which employ doorway pages on their clients' sites will likely tell you that they didn't have any other options. The client refused to allow them to edit any of the content on their website. Or the entire site was dynamically generated or built in flash and doorway pages were the only way to go, etc. No matter what the reasons, firms building doorway pages have committed themselves to playing a cat and mouse game with the search engines. Your site is the mouse.
As a rule of thumb, if you can't reach the page by following the site navigation, then it is a doorway page. You are not supposed to "visit" the page. Instead, you are just supposed to find it in the search results and then click through to get to the site in question. In essence, a doorway page is no more than a one-page click-through advertisement for a website.
However, when you are searching, you don't want to visit one-page click-through advertisements for a website. You want to visit websites. Think of doorway pages as giant banner ads, only worse. You're searching for "widgets" and instead of getting a widget site, you get a page that says, "click here for widgets." You just did that! Now they're asking you to do it again. Are you going to click?
The fact is that doorway pages don't do a very good job of generating traffic, even when they are done by "experts." Many users simply hit their back buttons when presented with a doorway page. Still, many SEO firms count those first visits and report them to their clients as successes. SEO Firm: "You got 140 visits to your site today!" Client: "But no one visited our products pages!"
Can you spot the doorway page? Look at the site map below. There are three doorway pages on the site. Can you spot them? You should know that Google can spot them just as easily.
Is it a Doorway Page or just another Web page? Is the page an integral part of the contents of your website?
Do you link to the page in your site navigation?
If "Yes, Yes, " then the page is not a doorway page. If "No, No, " then the page is a doorway page.
Google has some very clearly stated opinions about doorway pages. We suggest you read them before even thinking about using doorway pages in your Web marketing efforts.
So, why do SEO firms build doorway pages?
Some SEO firms may be relying on commercially available software to help them perform their tasks. One common example is WebPosition Gold, which has a very useful position checking feature. Unfortunately, WebPosition Gold also has a "Page Generator" feature that will create doorway pages as fast as you can type (or copy and paste), then upload them to your site, and even submit them to the search engines. Avoid those features.
If you ask them, people working at firms which employ doorway pages on their clients' sites will likely tell you that they didn't have any other options. The client refused to allow them to edit any of the content on their website. Or the entire site was dynamically generated or built in flash and doorway pages were the only way to go, etc. No matter what the reasons, firms building doorway pages have committed themselves to playing a cat and mouse game with the search engines. Your site is the mouse.
Jun 24, 2017 - 08:18 AM
The main problem is that people might use an overly broad definition of 'doorway page'
My personal rule of thumb has more to do with conversion than navigation. If your page is compelling enough to generate a conversion, then it's worth having.
Imagine you were a big insurance company that sold insurance to people in every state and city in america. Nowadays many people will search with their local city, use 'near me' to find insurance quotes. Therefore it's a good idea to have a '(city), (state) insurance quotes' page for every city in America.
Why would you do this? Look on a Google for 'seattle insurance quotes' every single result is a page themed around seattle specifically. Many of the competitors are big national companies that happen to offer quotes to people in Seattle. This website ranks #1 for 'seattle insurance quotes':
https://quotewizard.com/auto-insurance/seattle-was...
What do you think their landing page looks like for every other city in america? I'm betting it's pretty similar. I checked for 'miami insurance quotes' sure enough they're on page 1, and the page looks like it's using the same template.
https://quotewizard.com/auto-insurance/miami-flori...
I'm sure that all the content is 'superficially' unique enough to avoid any duplicate content issues, but ultimately this is 'technically' a 'doorway page'
The main reason they do this is because having just 1 page about 'insurance quotes' won't help them rank for any of these local keywords.
I'm calling out insurance specifically because it's a very competitive industry when it comes to SEO, so companies will do anything that works in order to rank.
Do you see their 'seattle' page in their navigation? (Answer: No)
Do you see their 'miami' page in their navigation? (Answer: No)
Does the 'miami' page do anything that the 'seattle' page doesn't? No, the miami page does the same exact thing. Both pages have a call to action that takes you to the exact same place.
The key here is that the pages are actually well designed.
I point all of this out because it shows that 'doorway pages' are not 'bad'. This is clearly a 'doorway page' by CJ's definition.
Is the page an integral part of the contents of your website?
No. Anybody looking for a quote could visit their home page and find one. Both cities link to the same 'get a quote' page.
Do you link to the page in your site navigation?
No. They don't link to any city pages in their main navigation.
If "Yes, Yes, " then the page is not a doorway page. If "No, No, " then the page is a doorway page.
Google has some very clearly stated opinions about doorway pages. We suggest you read them before even thinking about using doorway pages in your Web marketing efforts.
In many cases, Google (the company) says a lot of things that contradict how Google (the algorithm) actually works.
Obviously these are not 'copy and paste' pages (miami vs seattle) someone put in real effort to make sure they have unique and interesting content.
I don't think any software that exists today could produce a page like the ones that rank on page 1 for these very competitive terms. Some of the statistical aspects (top vehicles) could easily be 'machine written' but a Human clearly had a hand in making writing content for these pages.
Just to recap: I don't think 'doorway pages' are intrinsically "bad". You should make sure your pages are unique, interesting and useful enough for the keyword search you're targeting that someone would actually convert into a lead or customer directly on those pages.
--
Note: before you call out 'quotes wizard' as a specific 'bad guy' for doing this, here are all the 5 other results on page 1 for 'seattle insurance quotes' that do the exact same strategy
https://www.valuepenguin.com/best-cheap-car-insura...
http://www.carinsurance.com/city/Seattle-auto-insu...
http://www.cheapcarinsurance.net/seattle-washingto...
https://www.geico.com/information/states/wa/seattl...
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/cheapest...
My personal rule of thumb has more to do with conversion than navigation. If your page is compelling enough to generate a conversion, then it's worth having.
Imagine you were a big insurance company that sold insurance to people in every state and city in america. Nowadays many people will search with their local city, use 'near me' to find insurance quotes. Therefore it's a good idea to have a '(city), (state) insurance quotes' page for every city in America.
Why would you do this? Look on a Google for 'seattle insurance quotes' every single result is a page themed around seattle specifically. Many of the competitors are big national companies that happen to offer quotes to people in Seattle. This website ranks #1 for 'seattle insurance quotes':
https://quotewizard.com/auto-insurance/seattle-was...
What do you think their landing page looks like for every other city in america? I'm betting it's pretty similar. I checked for 'miami insurance quotes' sure enough they're on page 1, and the page looks like it's using the same template.
https://quotewizard.com/auto-insurance/miami-flori...
I'm sure that all the content is 'superficially' unique enough to avoid any duplicate content issues, but ultimately this is 'technically' a 'doorway page'
The main reason they do this is because having just 1 page about 'insurance quotes' won't help them rank for any of these local keywords.
I'm calling out insurance specifically because it's a very competitive industry when it comes to SEO, so companies will do anything that works in order to rank.
Do you see their 'seattle' page in their navigation? (Answer: No)
Do you see their 'miami' page in their navigation? (Answer: No)
Does the 'miami' page do anything that the 'seattle' page doesn't? No, the miami page does the same exact thing. Both pages have a call to action that takes you to the exact same place.
The key here is that the pages are actually well designed.
- The user experience is pretty good and easy to read.
- The Content is actually interesting and relevant to their respective locations, because they're providing information that is actually uniquely about whatever city I found them with.
- They're linking to local resources like the Seattle government websites
- I could see a normal person actually converting into a lead on this page.
I point all of this out because it shows that 'doorway pages' are not 'bad'. This is clearly a 'doorway page' by CJ's definition.
Is the page an integral part of the contents of your website?
No. Anybody looking for a quote could visit their home page and find one. Both cities link to the same 'get a quote' page.
Do you link to the page in your site navigation?
No. They don't link to any city pages in their main navigation.
If "Yes, Yes, " then the page is not a doorway page. If "No, No, " then the page is a doorway page.
Google has some very clearly stated opinions about doorway pages. We suggest you read them before even thinking about using doorway pages in your Web marketing efforts.
In many cases, Google (the company) says a lot of things that contradict how Google (the algorithm) actually works.
Obviously these are not 'copy and paste' pages (miami vs seattle) someone put in real effort to make sure they have unique and interesting content.
I don't think any software that exists today could produce a page like the ones that rank on page 1 for these very competitive terms. Some of the statistical aspects (top vehicles) could easily be 'machine written' but a Human clearly had a hand in making writing content for these pages.
Just to recap: I don't think 'doorway pages' are intrinsically "bad". You should make sure your pages are unique, interesting and useful enough for the keyword search you're targeting that someone would actually convert into a lead or customer directly on those pages.
--
Note: before you call out 'quotes wizard' as a specific 'bad guy' for doing this, here are all the 5 other results on page 1 for 'seattle insurance quotes' that do the exact same strategy
https://www.valuepenguin.com/best-cheap-car-insura...
http://www.carinsurance.com/city/Seattle-auto-insu...
http://www.cheapcarinsurance.net/seattle-washingto...
https://www.geico.com/information/states/wa/seattl...
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/cheapest...
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