Doorway page refers to a page built to rank for specific search queries that sends visitors on to a different destination. Google lists this as doorway abuse in its spam policies.
How does Google define doorway abuse?
Google describes doorways as sites or pages created to rank for specific, similar queries, which lead users to intermediate pages that are less useful than the final destination. Examples from the policy:
- multiple websites with slight variations of the URL and home page to maximize reach for a query
- multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page
- pages generated to funnel visitors into the usable part of a site
- substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than to a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy
Google announced a ranking adjustment against such pages on March 16, 2015, and added clarifying examples to its quality guidelines.
Example
A plumber creates 50 pages titled “Plumber in [city]” with identical text, all linking to one contact page. A page for a real location with its own address and services is not a doorway page.
Sources
- Spam policies for Google web search (doorways) – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- An update on doorway pages – Google Search Central Blog, March 2015developers.google.com
- Doorway pages – Outreach Monks (secondary)outreachmonks.com
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