About Google's Doorway Entry Page Policy: Some Do's and Don'ts

Earlier this year, Google announced a 'Doorway Page Algorithm' update, which is a ranking adjustment meant to reduce doorway pages in search results. Google took this decision because they believe that doorway pages are of no real value, and limit the options available to users when they show up in Google search results.

What are doorway pages?

Doorway pages are web pages or sites that are created to increase search engine ranking. They are not made with the users in mind, but are intermediate pages or ‘doors’ to the primary website. Doorway pages have low quality content, and only exist to redirect users to the main website.

Doorway pages are not to be confused with landing pages, which are designed to provide relevant content for a particular market segment or town/city. Let’s say you are in the business of car hire with your main site being www.carhire.com, but you operate in multiple locations. You can set up a landing page for each town/city, however, the content should be unique, and not overlap with the primary site content.

Do’s and Don’ts for my website

• DO make sure that your web pages are fully integrated into the site, and have relevant information.
• DO ensure that landing pages have fresh content, rich images, and are segment specific.
• DON’T include ‘island’ pages on your website. These are pages that are difficult to get to from other parts of the site. Google will easily recognise that these pages are there only to get more search traffic.
• DON’T pack keywords into web content. Google can spot pages that use keywords just for rankings.

What happens if I get a penalty?

If your web page is penalised by Google’s Doorway Page Penalty Algorithm, ask yourself the following:

• Does the user need this page to find what they are looking for?
• Does the content meet the user’s needs?

If the answer to these questions is YES, rewrite the content so that it provides valuable information, if the answer is NO, simply remove the page.