Doorway pages?

are these things still viable?

[elgumbo]

I've not been concentrating too much on SEM lately and one of my colleagues has been approached by a SEM company (with all the usual guarantees or top ranking etc).

After taking a look at their site and client testimonials it looks like they are getting some good positions but as far as I can tell, they are just using doorway pages to achieve this. There doesn't seem to be any redirection going on (when comparing with the google cache)

I must admit, I thought doorway pages had died a death years ago so am I missing something here? Or is there life in the old dog yet?

[hannamyluv]

Do they work... Yes. Will they get you in trouble if the SEs see them... Most likely if not done very, very correctly.

[elgumbo]

Thanks for the info.

Any tips on what is the correct way to "utilise" doorway pages?

[delboy1978uk]

Are you refering to the old 'enter site here' page?
Of course I assume that by typing an address into my browser and clicking GO that I AM entering someones site..

what is far worse however is the 'Flash intro' doorway page - there is nothing worse - people browsing (or customers, depending on your viewpoint) have very limited patience, and it gets ridiculously so when their browser INSISTS that they download and install some 'plug-in' just so they can watch some ar*e which they will inevitably ignore and go straight into the site anyway

[Liane]

My industry is rife with the things and they get good placement too! Seems all you need for content in a site like that is just the keywords_in_domain.com to be at the top of the heap for both Google and Yahoo.

Now that's some complicated algo! ... NOT!

[elgumbo]

Yep the old click here to enter trick.

Personally, I thought it was long gone. But at least one SEO company I have looked at appears to be using them quite successfully (in terms of search engine rankings).

Of course, if they are as successful in getting visitors to click on the "enter here" button is another question.

[willybfriendly]

Yeah, I have seen a few of these doing quite well in some niches. I know of one outfit in particular that is cranking out thousands of these on boilerplate layouts. Big keyword heading, one line of content and "click here". Once you "click here" all you find is a single page of affiliate links to other "resources". Doesn't inspire confidence in the current algo.

WBF

[delboy1978uk]

Some people have been going on about how frames suck for SEO but if that's all they are doing on their doorway then surely the framset index page can do the same trick for you without the irritation of the click here crap?

[hannamyluv]

Any tips on what is the correct way to "utilise" doorway pages?

Each page should have unique, real content. Of course, if you can do that, than you should just take the little extra step and make content pages instead.

Right now, there seems to be a resurgence of two types of spam doorway pages. The first is the same text fitted with the targeted keyword across many pages. The second is randomly generated text with keywords inserted.

[graywolf]

As part of the new strategic direction we have renamed the following page doorway.html to sitemap.html . This change when incorporated with our newly designed navigation banner should fill all of your needs.

[Robert Charlton]

Any tips on what is the correct way to "utilise" doorway pages?

I view all pages as potential doorways, but they've got to be well integrated within the site to work. If you're sneaky about them, or they're one linked into the site, but the site doesn't link back to them, they'll either be ineffective or trouble... take your pick.

When is a door not a door?
When it's ajar. But seriously - about doorway pages...
[webmasterworld.com...]

PS - Forget the SEM company that's approached your friend, though. That's got all the earmarks of a scam.

[elgumbo]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I think I'll have a play with them on test domain.

Cheers.

[Imaster]

What would be the best way to handle articles on topics which have a single main topic name and around 5-10 synonyms.

Earlier, I had a framework wherein a single page had all the 11 keywords (main + synonyms) in the <title> tag, and this page was linked from the A-Z index pages using all different synonyms from the respective alpha-index pages. But, I was having a difficult time getting these pages ranked for any keywords.

Then, on those index pages, next to each synonym, I even added the main topic name in brackets. The result is that the anchor text proximity of the main topic keyword has increased and is hence raking well for that main topic keyword, but is ranking poorly for the alternate names. Note: I still have all 11 keywords in the <title> tag.

Now, I am planning to implement doorway pages for each of these synonyms, such that the main file only has the main topic name in the <title> tag and the doorway pages have the respective synonym in the <title>, <h1>, etc. These doorway pages are linked legally from the A-Z alpha index pages and the link in the bracket main keyword goes directly to the main page. The doorway pages could have a short definition for the topic with a link to the main page. Do you think such a framework could get me in trouble?

Two of the most credible sites in my niche have implemented this technique and are ranking superbly on Google. I am really confused, I cannot afford to get penalised as ours is a very popular and authorative site in the niche (not a spam hyphenated domain kinds).

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Imaster]

Any tips?