Doorway Page
Doorway pages are, in essence,
any pages optimized to rank well on a search engine. Since each
search engine ranks pages differently, it's virtually impossible
for a single page to rank well on all engines. For example,
AltaVista may favor pages with 800 words on the page, where
Google might favor 400 words. In this scenario, there's no way
to design your page to appeal to both engines' preferences.
The solution is to create one page designed for AltaVista, and
submit it to AltaVista, and a separate page designed for Google,
and submit that one to Google.
These "doorway" pages
act as alternate entrances to your site tailored to rank well
on a particular engine, and for particular keywords. People
doing searches will not always find your home page if another
page is more relevant to the search. Often, they will find you
via a sub-page on your site. You may have noticed this when
you've done your own searches on the Web.
In summary, a "doorway"
page can be any page: Your home page, product information page,
or a page introducing your Web site. There is nothing magical
about doorway pages, except that it happens to have the proper
number of words, keywords, and other variables to rank well.
Many people over the years have abused the doorway
page concept by optimizing pages for keywords that did not apply
to their Web site, or using other spam tactics that the search
engines dislike. Therefore, the term doorway page has taken
on a negative connotation for many. Realizing this, some people
choose to call their doorway pages "informational pages,"
"bridge pages," "gateway pages," or a host
of other creative terms. Whatever you choose to call them, the
key is to follow the rules and avoid spamming the search engine.
You'll then be creating "search engine friendly" pages
rather than search engine spam.
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