Google updated their definition of ‘What is a Doorway Page’ last week (yeah, I know it’s been covered but Matt bought it up in his blog so I’m making sure everyone is updated) to have a more concise meaning across the webmaster world as to what doorway pages are.
New Definition of Doorway Pages:
Doorway pages are typically large sets of poor-quality pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword or phrase. In many cases, doorway pages are written to rank for a particular phrase and then funnel users to a single destination.
This acknowledges both doorway pages across multiple domains, or on the same domain.
The old definition of a doorway page by Google :
Doorway pages are pages specifically made for search engines. Doorway pages contain many links - often several hundred - that are of little to no use to the visitor, and do not contain valuable content. HTML sitemaps are a valuable resource for your visitors, but ensure that these pages of links are easy for your visitors to navigate. If you have a number of links to include, consider organizing them into categories or into multiple pages. But in doing so, ensure that they are intended for visitors to navigate the sections of your site, and not simply for search engines.
What do you think of the new definition?
Comments
3 responses so far ↓
Wayne Smallman on Jun 4, 2008 at 10:24 am
I can see how easily this description could be misinterpreted as sleight against Landing Pages, too.
Google might want to clarify the differences between the two for the less knowledgeable…
Michael Martinez on Jun 4, 2008 at 12:14 pm
It might be a good idea for them to include a link to their guidelines about PPC Landing Pages, although the “poor quality” qualification should eliminate landing pages from most people’s understanding. Who wants a poor quality landing page?
I like this new definition much, much better than the old one. It’s far more accurate and in step with how the SEO community has defined doorway pages for many years.
I think some ambiguity is necessary to help preserve the quality of their algorithms and filters.
Hull Web Design on Jun 6, 2008 at 3:16 am
I think the new definition is a massive improvement on the old.
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