What is a doorway page?
A doorway page is a website created to redirect traffic to another website. It's like a middleman that guides you to your desired destination. These doorway pages are usually set up on separate domains to avoid any negative impact on the main website if they get blocked. Most of the time, doorway pages don't offer any useful information. Instead, they focus on using popular keywords that search engines pay attention to. The more relevant keywords they have, the higher they appear in search results. It's a cheap and fast way to attract lots of web traffic, but it's not entirely legal because search engines don't like it.
Google asks these questions to websites.
When did doorway pages first appear, and how?
The first doorway pages emerged nearly three decades ago, around the same time as search engine optimization (SEO). Back then, link ranking of pages did not exist, and a site's relevance to a search query was solely determined by its content. In other words, the higher the content quality and better the keyword selection, the higher the site would appear in search results.
Link ranking of pages is now a major factor considered by search engines to determine a site's position in search results. The more links from thematic content that point to a specific resource, the higher its ranking. This ranking algorithm is now employed by all major search engines.
The more links, the higher the position of the page.
Doorway pages were created to cover as many user searches as possible. For instance, the same query could be phrased in various ways, such as "programming courses," "courses for programming," or "how to learn programming." It often proved challenging to organically incorporate all such queries into a single text, but they all existed.
Doorway pages addressed this issue by adding various keywords, which led to this method of promotion being labeled "black SEO." The coherency of the text was disregarded, enabling websites to appear on the first page of search engine results.
After the introduction of link ranking, the effectiveness of doorway pages diminished, but only temporarily. It simply required optimization not only through keywords but also through links.
Consequently, doorway pages continue to function quite well by adapting to new realities and the demands of search algorithms.
How do doorway pages work?
Doorway pages operate based on three primary scenarios:
- After the user clicks on a link in the search results, they may not even realize that they have arrived at the desired site through doorway pages due to the redirect.
- The user accesses the doorway pages, and the content becomes visible. However, if they click anywhere, they are redirected to the target resource's page via a clickunder.
A clickunder is a new browser tab that opens in the background, displaying advertisements or other content triggered by a specific code upon clicking a page.
- Nothing occurs because the creators of the doorway pages have made an appealing design, filled it with valuable content, and placed links to the target resource, enabling visitors to choose whether to click on them or not.
Example of the third option.
The primary objective of doorway creators is to bring the main website to the first page of search engine results and generate as much traffic as possible before the doorway website gets banned. To achieve this, they optimize the doorway page through various methods, often neglecting the content's quality, which may provide little to no benefit. This involves adding a substantial quantity of high-frequency, mid-frequency, and low-frequency queries not only to the landing site's content but also to page metadata, titles, descriptions, HTML code (e.g., the alt attribute), headings, and other elements.
Examples of using doorway pages.
As a result of such spam, search algorithms evaluate the doorway page content as relevant to the query and rank it highly in search results. Users see these sites on the first page of Google and believe they have found precisely what they need. They click on the snippet, and subsequent events unfold according to one of the three aforementioned scenarios.
What are doorway pages used for, and is it worth using them?
Doorway pages are a somewhat deceptive method of promotion, but since they still exist, it means that some people find them useful. They are typically used to solve the following problems:
- Getting more backlinks: By creating a bunch of doorway pages, you can quickly increase the number of links to your main website. This can help boost your website's popularity.
- Making optimization easier: With doorway pages, you don't have to worry too much about optimizing your main website. The traffic will still come to it. Doorway pages are designed to be search engine friendly and can be optimized automatically using special programs. This saves time and money. Isn't that great for optimizing your website?
- Getting more traffic for free: Instead of spending money on honest promotion methods like creating good content or advertising, doorway pages offer a cheap way to bring more visitors to your website. You only need to create the doorway website and pay for the domain.
- Safe promotion: Even though search engines don't like doorway pages and see them as spam, using doorway pages won't harm your main website. It will still be indexed and won't get banned. This is true only if the doorway pages are on a separate domain. If they're on a subdomain of your main website, it can cause some problems.
Considering these advantages, doorways are a fast, cheap, and safe way to attract traffic to different types of websites, whether it's for affiliate marketing or e-commerce.
Pros and cons of doorway pages
Now let's look at the pros and cons of doorway pages:
Pros:
- Free traffic: The main cost is creating the doorway website, but you can do it for free using website builders and finding free hosting.
- More audience: If done right, doorway pages can quickly bring more people to your website and improve its ranking in search engines.
- Easy optimization: With doorway pages, you don't have to spend time optimizing your main website. You can focus on creating good content instead.
Cons:
- Risk of being banned: Search engines don't like doorway pages, so there's a risk of them being banned. Blackhat doorway pages don't last very long, while grayhat and whitehat doorway pages can last longer if you manage them carefully.
- Losing target audience: Doorways might turn away visitors who see them as spam or fake. If people feel tricked or find low-quality content, they won't bring you any traffic or help you achieve your goals.
- Need for free hosting: To keep costs low, doorway pages are often hosted on free platforms. But if you choose to pay for hosting and a domain, it can be more expensive than using legitimate promotion methods.
Types of doorway pages
Doorways can be classified into different types based on their operating principle::
- Whitehat: These doorway pages look like real websites with useful content and proper design. They include keywords and links naturally. They focus on delivering quality traffic.
- Grayhat: These doorway pages are not as good as whitehat ones. The content might be computer-generated or lack originality. They often have links to other websites and encourage users to click and visit the main content.
- Blackhat: Blackhat doorway pages don't care about content quality. They just want to generate traffic quickly by redirecting visitors to another website.
This is what the grayhat version looks like on Google:
And this is what the page looks like:
When you click on any link on that site, you'll be taken to a landing page where you can purchase the drug. This is how these grayhat doorway pages operate.
Search engines are constantly fighting against blackhat doorways, which are the most deceptive and harmful. It's worth noting that search engines have become more effective in combating them compared to a few years ago when blackhat doorways were more common. Nowadays, you'll mostly come across grayhat and whitehat doorways, which aren't as malicious.
Another way to classify doorway pages is based on the type of content they use. The most common type is text-based doorway pages because they are easier to create. However, some doorway pages use media content like images or videos with links to the target website. Additionally, doorways created using free tools like public pages on social networks are often considered a separate type.
Conclusion
Search engines don't see doorway pages as a fair way to promote websites. They especially target and ban blackhat doorways because they are deceptive. On the other hand, whitehat and grayhat doorways can be harder to identify as they often have good content and links, making them appear more legitimate.
Before launching a doorway page, you need to make sure it's prepared properly. This means filling it with relevant content and optimizing it for search engines. It's also important to keep the doorway page updated so that it continues to be recognized by search engines and attracts ongoing traffic. However, it's worth considering that maintaining a doorway page can be just as time-consuming as creating a main website, but without the risk of being banned by search engines.
That's why it's generally recommended to use legitimate methods, known as whitehat methods, to promote websites. These methods follow ethical guidelines and are more aligned with search engine rules. However, they take long to develop.
If you're looking for effective ways to send traffic to your website and generate profits quickly, you may want to explore advertising networks like MyBid, which provide the necessary tools and resources to achieve results.
