In SEO, a doorway page, also known as a gateway page or bridge page, refers to a web page created with the intention of ranking high in search engine results for specific keywords or phrases. However, instead of providing valuable and relevant content to users, doorway pages are designed primarily to manipulate search engine rankings and redirect visitors to other pages.
Doorway pages typically exhibit the following characteristics:
- Keyword-focused optimization: Doorway pages heavily target specific keywords or search queries to attract search engine traffic. They may employ keyword stuffing or other manipulative techniques to artificially boost their relevance.
- Minimal or low-quality content: Rather than providing substantial and valuable information, doorway pages often contain thin or shallow content that offers little value to visitors. Their primary purpose is to act as an entry point rather than offering meaningful content on their own.
- Redirects or cloaking: Doorway pages may use redirects or cloaking techniques to send users to a different page from what search engines initially indexed. This can deceive search engine crawlers and visitors, as the page they land on may be different from what they expected.
- Violation of search engine guidelines: Doorway pages typically violate search engine guidelines by employing manipulative tactics to achieve higher rankings. Search engines aim to deliver relevant and user-friendly results, and doorway pages go against these principles.
It’s worth noting that doorway pages are considered a black hat SEO technique and are actively discouraged by search engines. If detected, search engines may penalize or even remove websites that utilize such tactics from their search results.
In contrast, it’s best to focus on creating high-quality, user-friendly content that genuinely provides value to visitors and aligns with search engine guidelines and best practices.
