What To Know About The Doorway Page Update

It seems that Google’s mobile update got all the attention this week and not a lot of people have been focusing on Google’s doorway page update.  At first Google made it seem that the main reason the change was introduced was to thin out sites and pages which directly manipulated search results and sent people to low experience pages.  But it seems other types of site issues have been grouped under the doorway update.

Doorways are  basically pages and sites that are created to rank for specific searches. They are bad for usability because they can lead to similar pages, where each result ends up taking the user to pretty much the same destination. They can also lead users to pages along the way that are not necessarily your final destination.
Some examples of doorways are:

• Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific geographic locations that funnel users to one page
• Pages made to funnel visitors to the usable portion of your site(s)
• Similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined hierarchy

Here are questions to ask about pages that could be seen as doorway pages provided by the Google Webmaster Central Blog:

• Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site’s user experience?
• Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very specific?
• Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic?
• Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without creating unique value in content or functionality?
• Do these pages exist as an “island?” Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites created just for search engines?

If you are trying to manipulate traffic and chase search rankings without adding value ,your site may be at risk.  Targeting areas your business is not in may be a problematic practice as well.  If you are polluting the SERPs with multiple sites targeting the same things without adding value to users, then your site may be reevaluated.  If you need help with future proofing your website in search from this or any future updates give Nova Zora Digital a call today.