If I make keyword rich gateway pages that each link to other pages of relevant content on my site, do I have to link the rest of my site to them (for instance via the sitemap) for Google to find and then rank them? Or does google just start at 'www.blah.com' and find and rank all pages including orphaned gateways?
jatar_k
12:22 am on Sep 6, 2002 (gmt 0)
it does start at blah.com and spiders via all of the links on the page, goes to the next page and so on. If the pages have no links going to them they won't be found by spiders. imo, put keyword links from the index page to your doorways.
galaga
1:53 am on Sep 6, 2002 (gmt 0)
Thanks Jatar, But I wonder how to do this because won't it be a bit weird if a link from the main page takes a visitor to an essentially pointless gateway page? I'm imagining a gateway page as little more than a screen full of keyword rich text. For someone who has already found and is browsing the site I would think that this could be quite offputting. Maybe I've got the wrong idea of how this technique works.
jatar_k
2:00 am on Sep 6, 2002 (gmt 0)
so don't make them offputting. Give them the same look and feel as the rest of the site. Full of informational, keyword rich content.
They don't have to be awful, the links on the main page don't necessarily have to be in the main navigation either. Maybe you find a place where users wouldn't see them as the obvious first choice.
