doorway pages

[ariff44]

I have about 200 small (almost no pictures, just text) doorway pages that are all at PR5 leading into my join page. They are not seperate domains, they are all just folders in my site.

They are very similiar in html except for the keywords. They have been up for over 6 months and are really increasing traffic to my site.

However, there are more keywords and phrases that I want to create pages for but I don't want to be greedy.

If I make another 100 pages like the ones above, am I taking a big risk?

[Go60Guy]

Yes, I believe you're at substantial risk already. I would suggest that you carefully read the Google Webmaster Guidelines:

[google.com...]

[cornwall]

Nobody can give you an absolute answer, only ones based on experience ourselves (and other peoples experieces gleaned from here)

IMO you are lucky not to have been penalised for the 100 doorways you have, and I certainly would not push for another 100!

You are probably better advised to trim the 100 you already have to a more "manageable" figure

[HyperGeek]

Instead of creating traffic traps, why don't you concentrate on content?

If your front page was PR5, you may be half way to a higher ranking if that 100 pages were articles and such.

There was a webmaster on here that reached PR8 by posting every review he wrote on his web site. He didn't use a single doorway, and even though traffic didn't come flying in at first, he slowly found that the traffic was increasing.

Recently he had to move his site to another host - plus he sells advertising on it now.

Instead of trying to trick the SEs, you may want to create real content, theme it to the keywords that you want to target.

Google will find your doorways, and all of that work you put into them, and all of the traffic you've gained will suddenly dissappear.

Seems to me like you're headed for the infernal graybar if you continue those practices.

[rcjordan]

As G60 said, you've already taken a big risk. Doorways work, but you're rolling double-or-nothing in even moderately competitive categories.

[ariff44]

I appreciate your responses. I think maybe I didn't explain it right:

My "doorway pages" all have the same site design - meaning they all look the same as far as pictures and such and also have about the same amount of text, but each page has DIFFERENT text and keywords. Also, each page has a different title, meta tags and <h1>.

I don't think they are really "bad" doorway pages, I just call them that b/c they are optimized for each keyword.

So if I make 100 more pages that have the same layout but the text, keywords, <h1>, title are different, is that ok?

[rcjordan]

>I don't think

Famous last words in this game.

>ok?

Nope, probably not.

Here's the test; do those pages have any purpose for human visitors? If they do have information that will stand on its own when read, there may be hope. But just hope --no guarantees.

[ariff44]

yes they do have a use for human visitors - thanks for your help, with that test, I'll be fine.