‘What are Doorway Pages‘, you ask? In essence, doorway pages are SPAM. They are also referred to as bridge pages, entry pages and jump pages. These pages are specifically designed for gaining high placements in the Search Engines, usually containing oodles and oodles of a repeated keyword phrase that the search engine spider will pick up on. Another characteristic of doorway pages is that they often contain hidden text that is used for stuffing keywords onto a page. Typically, these pages will refresh and redirect the user quickly to a different website altogether and serve no purpose other than driving one-way traffic to their main website. What does this mean? Visitors will not view the same page that the search engine spiders do. In other words, one page is presented to search engines, and a completely different one is presented to visitors. Doorway pages can also be set up with links that normally do not interconnect the doorway site (if there are other pages), but simply point to their main website. The main website does not link back reciprocally either, so there is no real purpose to the user.
Search Engines do have means of detecting doorway pages and they do penalize, not only the doorway page, but also the site that is benefiting from it. Here is Google’s take on doorway pages.
They most likely will not come right out and say, “We will get you found by creating doorway pages”.
Be wary of search engine optimization companies who promise you top placements or number one positions who also promise that they will not change your current website. This is a telltale sign that they will be initiating doorway pages linking to your website. They most likely will not come right out and say, “We will get you found by creating doorway pages”. No, they have other ways of saying the same thing such as attraction pages, mini or microsites, satellite sites, magnet sites, directory information pages (or DIP), search engine entry (called SEE pages), and advertising pages. Using this type of aggressive and unethical SEO practice will get your website banned from Search Engines, regardless of your intentions.
SO – be careful when choosing an SEO company. Check to see if their website is grayed out on Google’s Page Rank toolbar, or if it is listed in Google’s index. Search on their company name and see what you turn up in forums and elsewhere. Also, ask for references and sites they have worked on and check those sites as well.
