Doorway Page Algorithm To Be Launched By Google

[aakk9999]

Google has announced yesterday that they are launching doorway page algorithm:

An update on doorway pages
16th March 2015
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/an-update-on-doorway-pages.html [googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk]

Over time, we've seen sites try to maximize their “search footprint” without adding clear, unique value. These doorway campaigns manifest themselves as pages on a site, as a number of domains, or a combination thereof. To improve the quality of search results for our users, we’ll soon launch a ranking adjustment to better address these types of pages. Sites with large and well-established doorway campaigns might see a broad impact from this change.

[McMohan]

I sincerely hope Google does something about Parasite SEO. Creating a page on an authority site and spamming ones way to ranks for competitive keywords has become a child's play. Penguin/Panda are not able to detect and deal with them currently.

[guggi2000]

Pages generated to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site

Google's search result pages are door way pages. The entire web is about funneling...UNLESS you want to have ALL search answers on ONE single domain (we know which one).

Our problem:
We have a site with many reference pages, each one with unique and relevant content. BUT at the top of the pages there is a "refine search" button which leads to a generic, not-indexed "query.jsp" database page. 50% of the visitors use the "refine search" and arrive to this generic "query.jsp"

Our question to the experts:
Do you think Google will check user behavior with Bounce Rate and CTR to determine DW pages or rely on the index, i.e. comparing INNER parts of page content, comparing subsets of keywords, subsets of duplicate content, etc. ?

[Nutterum]

I personally believe, that this algo will not hit the average Joe website. This is aimed at some services that compete(or will soon compete ;) ) with Google's own services. Some collateral will occur of course, but to me it all points out to one "idea" they want their Doorway page AKA Google's Knowledge Graph, be it geolocation, product info or general info, to be the only "doorway". And if they funnel traffic to the ads and or to their circle of services due to less and less organic real estate being visible - even better. "Do no evil!"

[toidi]

Like plumbers and attorneys with 80 city landing pages. 

please excuse my ignorance, but if they service those areas, why should they not have a page for each area? Isn't someone who is looking for a service provider in their city expecting to see service providers who service their city in the serps?

I ask because i am one of those service providers.

[Wilburforce]

please excuse my ignorance, but if they service those areas, why should they not have a page for each area?

No reason at all, if the pages serve different content for each area. However, it is a differnt matter if the only difference is the place-name (<h1>Widget Service Onetown</h1>, <h1>Widget Service Otherotwn</h1>...), which woud clearly involve duplicated content, even if there was nothing else wrong with it.

[guggi2000]

@toidi Landing page is different to doorway page. If your landing page is unique and not only a proxy for another page that should be fine.

However, the problem is if all your landing pages point to a certain "checkout" page where Google could assume that your landing pages serve only as an entry to funnel to the actual checkout page and mark them as doorway pages.

Let's hope G is smarter than that and collateral damage will be small...

[RedBar]

Let's hope G is smarter than that

Hahaha...And that they also do no evil?

[EditorialGuy]

No reason at all, if the pages serve different content for each area. However, it is a differnt matter if the only difference is the place-name (<h1>Widget Service Onetown</h1>, <h1>Widget Service Otherotwn</h1>...), which woud clearly involve duplicated content, even if there was nothing else wrong with it.

Exactly. I live in a metropolitan area that has 15+ counties and more than 200 cities, towns, and villages. If Bud's Floor Sanding or Foodbuddy Supermarkets serves the entire metro, is there any reason why Bud or Foodbuddy would have 200+ identical (except for place name) sell pages except to snare traffic from search engines?

Conceptually, at least, this isn't rocket science. And Google doesn't have to wrestle with grey-area or debate-worthy examples to remove 80% of doorway clutter from the SERPs. It can just pick the low-hanging fruit and consign it to the compost bin.

The more interesting question, IMHO, is whether the "doorway pages algorithm" will merely be a filter for doorway pages or will affect sitewide rankings. From the wording of the announcement, the former seems most likely, but there are no guarantees.

[guggi2000]

@EditorialGuy Why are you guys assuming that doorway pages are duplicate pages? A doorway page may be unique and great by itself. As long as the purpose is to funnel to another page it is a doorway page.

A doorway page is much more about user behaviour than about the actual content.

[rish3]

A doorway page is much more about user behaviour than about the actual content.

The definition that counts, in the context of this thread, is Google's. Many of their bullet points don't involve user behavior at all.

One of their examples is "Substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy".

That's just one example of course...the bullet points they give seem to be standalone examples.

[EditorialGuy]

Why are you guys assuming that doorway pages are duplicate pages? A doorway page may be unique and great by itself. As long as the purpose is to funnel to another page it is a doorway page.

We're merely pointing out obvious examples. And, as I said earlier, picking the low-hanging fruit (the obvious examples) is all Google really needs to do.

Another type of doorway page is the kind of page we often see on consumer tech megasites and review sites like TripAdvisor: the keyword-targeted "stub" that's designed to bring traffic into a site by tricking the searcher. When the searcher reaches the landing page for "XYZco ROU-100 router" or "hotel whatsit," he or she finds nothing but price-comparison widget or an invitation to write a review. I'm not seeing as many of these as I did a couple of years ago, but I'd like to see them removed from the SERPs altogether.

[Mitzimoto]

is there any reason why Bud or Foodbuddy would have 200+ identical (except for place name) sell pages except to snare traffic from search engines?

How else should they let google know they service all these areas? Should they keyword stuff a single page with 200 city names? Google will generally not rank a generic "floor sanding" page for the query "Floor sanding in Albany New York" if you don't have those words on it.

And honestly, how is this a really a poor user experience? If I'm looking for floor sanding in Albany New York and I land on a page for a company that does Floor sanding in Albany New York, what exactly is the problem?

These types of targeted, relevant landing pages are exactly what PPC campaigns do. It's a victimless crime to have 200 different target city landing pages if you actually provide the service in all 200 of those cities.

[rish3]

If I'm looking for floor sanding in Albany New York and I land on a page for a company that does Floor sanding in Albany New York, what exactly is the problem?

Donning my tin foil hat :)

The CTR for ads that say "Floor sanding Albany NY" is much higher if the ads are not accompanied by organic results that also say "Floor sanding Albany NY".

Edit: typo

[RedBar]

Should they keyword stuff a single page with 200 city names? Should they keyword stuff a single page with 200 city names?

That seems to work extremely well in the footer for many UK sites, it drives me crazy!

[netmeg]

And honestly, how is this a really a poor user experience? If I'm looking for floor sanding in Albany New York and I land on a page for a company that does Floor sanding in Albany New York, what exactly is the problem?

... It's a victimless crime to have 200 different target city landing pages if you actually provide the service in all 200 of those cities.

But it's apparently not part of Google's business model to serve these kinds of pages. At least that's what they're saying.

[EditorialGuy]

These types of targeted, relevant landing pages are exactly what PPC campaigns do. It's a victimless crime to have 200 different target city landing pages if you actually provide the service in all 200 of those cities.

Maybe, but we aren't talking about PPC campaigns. We're talking about organic search results.

In any case, Google isn't saying that doorway pages are a crime. Google is merely saying that it no longer wants to highlight them in its SERPs.

[Wilburforce]

Should they keyword stuff a single page with 200 city names?

How many businesses are able to supply a location-based service in 200 cities? If they actually have branches in 200 cities, I don't see why they shouldn't have a directory page linking to local branch pages. Most of the bigger retailers do that.

[guggi2000]

The definition that counts, in the context of this thread, is Google's.

Sure, Google's definition counts. But let's not forget measurement.

200 cities example: Let's assume that each page is different from the other ones by more than 50% (!), no duplicate, only UNIQUE content.

Do you really think G will know these are doorway pages without measuring user behavior? The only other option would be deep analyzing page titles and page structure in order to find a pattern. Seems too far fetched to me!

And if these pages were too similar they would have been gone A LONG TIME ago...

So, it either involves user measurement or it's all old news.

[rish3]

And if these pages were too similar they would have been gone A LONG TIME ago...

My earlier example of Google gybo.com pages are VERY similar...only a few words vary across 50 state landing pages. They rank for their intended terms. They do all have lots of very nice inbound links.

They perhaps *should* have been gone, but I can't say *would* have been gone.

[EditorialGuy]

My earlier example of Google gybo.com pages are VERY similar...only a few words vary across 50 state landing pages. They rank for their intended terms. They do all have lots of very nice inbound links.

They perhaps *should* have been gone, but I can't say *would* have been gone.

The more relevant question is "Will they be gone?"

I'd guess that those pages, and pages like them, will be gone or demoted once the doorway-page algorithm goes into effect. But there's no need to speculate: We should be able to see soon enough.

[fathom]

As Brett pointed out they attempted to do this in 2003.

Their definition of what a doorway page is, is flawed. Not as clear cut as you think. Every landing page by default passes traffic like most doorway would so by avoiding to demote landing pages what do you think they can accomplish?

Here are questions to ask of pages that could be seen as doorway pages:
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?

The first sound like a static homepage... it's purpose is precisely that.

Mathematically define what integral means

Then

Mathematically define what user experience means.

Math is very precise and the more IF you apply the less precise your equation is...

Then

try to convey that to a macro-program to leave those alone and the rest must be doorway pages (maybe).

[edited by: fathom at 9:57 pm (utc) on Mar 18, 2015]

[fathom]

I do the last one... and when my setup remains I know Google's Webspam Team failed.

Course my pages don't rank at all thus don't capture searchers to make them visitors which means I'm not actually creating doorways - right?

[guggi2000]

@rish3

...only a few words vary across 50 state landing pages...

Then you are at risk. Take a few days of work and add unique content to each one of them. It will add freshness too. Be user focused.

They may call it doorway page algorithm, but to me it sounds more like an improvement of the duplicate content filter.

[rish3]

Then you are at risk. Take a few days of work and add unique content to each one of them. It will add freshness too. Be user focused.

Heh. The example I gave wasn't one of my sites. It was a google owned and operated site.

[guggi2000]

Heh. The example I gave wasn't one of my sites. It was a google owned and operated site.

@rish3 Sorry for the confusion. Will be interesting to see if they hit their own sites.

[fathom]

Wikepedia has tons of doorway pages they call disambiguation pages. A page about Lincoln that is very ambiguous because it is meant to capture traffic and point them towards the Lincoln they prefer - the president, the five dollar bill, the movie, the car, the city, the school, or maybe the park.

Very difficult to get to these pages from within Wikipedia they are not meant to drive users to the them but meant to be a doorway to direct users to there specific topic.

[guggi2000]

Anyone have an idea of when this is going to happen, or did it already happen?

[Nutterum]

@fathom - if you believe Google will hit these types of pages then a good chunk of the listing directories will follow as their structure is more or less the same. This will be indeed very interesting to watch if true.

[fathom]

I don't believe anything will happen simply because if they attempt to test they will effect their whitelist of sites which in that case is something they will not put live.

[roshaoar]

This is good. Back in the day we used to make doorway pages for geographical locations because that's how people searched and there was no other way to do it. That's then become abused and there are plenty of these geography doorway type pages trying to extend the business coverage into a far larger area than they actually really cover. I'm guessing Google wants a bit less webspin so expects people to use Google local listings for their areas rather than pagespam.

The examples of Google properties are interesting but a bit irrelevant as they'll be hit the same as anyone else, as it should be. And not really realistic to expect the central webspam team to be aware of every irrelevant outlying 3rd party bought in web property.