Doorway assistance

Doorways in a retail environment

[lhunter]

I am the owner of a retail store front. As with any retail oriented shop, online or brick and motor, front page web space needs to be dedicated to items that sell, not text.

Since search engines live for text and not images (although we use alt tags religiously), what is the best way to set up a doorway page(s)?

Is it just an invisible link to the home page? I have looked all over the web and cannot find and answer.

Also, is there a limit to the number of doorway pages one should have? I have been told that one page per product category would cover us well - we sell about 1500 products in 30 different categories.

[martinibuster]

I think to do this, you need to build a web page, or pages, within your site, each concentrating on one, two or even three individual keyword phrase combinations.

Home Blue widgets can also, if you have "red" in there, be combined to score for "Home Red Widgets."

First, be aware of the different keywords people are "actually" using to find you, or your competitors.

Then build legitimate pages within your web site so that searchers can find you using those keywords.

This is the ideal "doorway" into your shop.

[lhunter]

Thank you. If I understand, these doorways would then be just links off of the relevant page, right? i.e. home page, product pages, etc...

[martinibuster]

Best if you can link off the home page. Also, try to point as many pages to your pages as you can. I'm not sure how others think of it, but what I try to do is get some good PR circulation going.

A faq page, or a "product information" page is a good way to position yourself in the search engine, and it's very helpful to your customers. I myself like to read about a product before buying it. In a grocery store I like to pick up the box and read the ingredients and check the fat levels. So it's a win-win situation for you, the search engine, and the surfers. There is nothing wrong with doing this. It's totally above board.