An ethical alternative to doorway pages by Scott Smigler

An ethical alternative to doorway pages by Scott Smigler

Definition: A doorway page is content created specifically for the purpose of garnering high placements in the search engines.

Issue: Google makes the following specific recommendation: Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content (http://www.google.com/intl/az/webmasters/guidelines.html).

This article addresses the issue of doorway pages, proposes an acceptable alternative and offers some insights into the basic principles of search engine optimization.

To frame the issue of doorway pages it is important to understand why content is so critical to search engine optimization. In order to do this we need to step back and take a look at the search engines themselves:

Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all other search engines want to provide the same thing: A prioritized list of links that point to most relevant web sites satisfying the users search criteria.

Relevance is defined as the best content with the best fit to the users search. Thats a search engines valueproviding efficient access to the information a user wants when they want it.

The search engine that does the best job of delivering the largest quantity of the most relevant results attracts the most users.

Obviously speed, ease-of-use and marketing impact popularity but in the end the quality of the results counts most.

The best way for you to get long-term results is by partnering with the search engines. Partnering means recognizing and supporting the value-proposition that the search engines provide to their end-users:

Provide lots of highly relevant content
Follow accepted (i.e. ethical) search engine optimization principles

Is there an alternative? Sure, like many situations there are always short cuts and quick fixes that purport to let you game the system. Instead of partnering with the search providers you compete with them. By compete I mean all the effort (and dollars) expended to chase their constantly evolving algorithms and artificially increase your sites rankings. These techniques may get you short-term results but many are considered the equivalent of spamming and could get your site de-listed. From a search engine providers point of view, anything that gets better results for sites with inferior content (and fit) is compromising their product and is temporary until they tune their algorithm so that it correctly ranks your site (down).

One of these shortcuts is the use of doorway pages. The rest of this article discusses the use of doorway pages and recommends an alternative approach.

What is a doorway page?
Doorway pages are pages of content that have been specifically designed to achieve high rankings in the search engines. They are often used by websites that dont have an abundance of content within the main pages of their site due to technology issues or design conflicts. They can be an effective tool for garnering short-term placement in search engine rankings when used appropriately, but doorway pages have been abused by websites for many years, to the point that they are frowned upon by search engines who now attempt to exclude them from their result pages.

What does a Doorway Page look like?
A doorway page appears as if it was built specifically to attain high search engine placement, and offers little value to searchers. It often has the following characteristics:
oA lot of poorly written content, with an abundance of hyperlinked phrases in the body text
oCopy that is stuffed with lists of keywords
oZero (0) in-bound links from other parts of the website
Example: you build a doorway page named targeted-keyword.html, but do not link to this page from any other part of your website. Google assumes no in-bound links exist because this page is of little value, and you want to hide it from regular visitors to its site.
oA redirection that automatically loads a new page once the doorway pages is accessed

Bottom line: A doorway page stands alone from your website, and offers little value to searchers

If any of those characteristics exist on the page, and if a number of these pages are created within a single website, Google is likely to discount their value, or worse, ban the site.

If doorway pages are inappropriate then what is a better alternative?

The essay page
An essay page, on the other hand, is integrated into the main website (although not into the navigation structure). It offers real value to the searcher because the content is relevant and well-written. It often has the following characteristics:
oClean HTML coding with an HTML design similar to that of other pages of the website
oA lot of content, with several hyperlinked phrases in the body text
oSeveral in-bound links from other parts of the website
Example: On the solutions page, you hyperlink the phrase targeted keyword, to the targeted-keyword.html essay page.
oQuality content that offers real value to the searcher

Bottom line: An essay page is a natural extension of your website. For all intents and purposes, it is integrated content more than it is a doorway page, because it expands on a certain subject.
Will you benefit from using essay pages?
Essay pages used effectively can be good solutions when a sites navigation does not support the addition of content, or if it would be difficult to develop valuable content to include within the main navigation. If this is not the case I recommend that you add additional pages of content (which will provide more benefits than essay pages), while enhancing the user experience.

Summary and Recommendation

The creation and proper integration of additional content is critical to the ability to achieve consistent top 10 rankings on the most targeted keywords. Essay pages can be valuable when a website cannot be easily scaled to include more content through the main navigation structure. However, the first priority should be increasing content as much as possible before resorting to essay pages.

Over time, your more sophisticated competitors will compete for placement by incorporating significant content, and by implementing important search engine optimization features, not by using essay (or doorway) pages.

If youve adopted an aggressive doorway page strategy, its possible (and maybe likely) that a competitor would report it to Google. If Google determines that you have violated their rules, you could be de-listed.

As a result of the risk that doorway pages pose and the benefits integrating additional relevant content provides, I strongly recommend the approach of reevaluating your navigation structure, and adding additional pages of relevant content if possible. From a search engine ranking point of viewcontent is not king, but relevant content sure is.

About the Author
Scott Smigler has been an evangelist for a serious, ROI-based focus on the online channel since he founded Exclusive Concepts in 1997. Exclusive Concepts provides integrated online marketing strategies, Internet brand consulting, search engine marketing campaigns and results-oriented web sites for hundreds of clients that range in size from small ecommerce firms to public companies.

How to Design a Website for the Search Engines by John Aschoff

How to Design a Website for the Search Engines by John Aschoff

What is the best way to build a website, in regards to ranking well in the search engines?

Here are some points to consider when building a website:

1. Website Text
Most recently Google is looking for exact keyword phrases in a websites text.
In the past it would look at the text on the index page and put keywords together, even if they were in different paragraphs. Google still does this, but now is putting more relevance on exact keyword phrases, rather than putting keywords together separately.
Example: If a website is selling 'checks', it should have exact keyword phrases in the text for all its related services:
'business checks'
'order business checks'
'deluxe checks'
'designer checks'
etc.

* On your main (index) page, the text should be informational and tell your visitors what your site is all about.
* Make sure your text contains your keywords and phrases, but don't make it hard for your visitors to read.....stuffing keywords into the text, just for the sake of higher rankings, will not do you much good for your visitors, if the text doesn't flow well.
* Conventional wisdom calls for around 250 words of text on the index (opening) page, in order to insert our needed keywords. Its not so important how much text. What is important is that you need enough text in order to insert all your important keyword phrases, without the text sounding 'spammy'.
* Search engines (Google especially) love information. This means that the more info you offer your visitors, the better you may rank. If Google sees that you are offering your visitors helpful information, they will reward you for it. If you have .pdf articles or files, create the article in HTML (and .pdf if you like, its fine to use both methods together). This will allow the search engines to read the article and index the information. Many .pdf files are images, which search engines won't index well. Convert it into HTML, and they will.
* Not only does Google like information, but other websites will link to you, if your site offers information that their visitors would be interested in. More links means a higher rank in the search engines.
* Create separate pages with information. Example: If you have a hotel website, create a page about local attractions. If your service is real estate, then have articles on 'How to Obtain a Home Mortgage' or 'Home Inspection Tips'. Not only will Google love you, but so will visitors to your site.
* Don't use promotional language in your text like 'we're the best' or 'the number 1 real estate service in the USA!'......just reading that last sentence makes me ill. Your visitors aren't stupid, don't treat them like they are. Not only will it displease your audience, but it won't help with the search engines either. Do you think a search engine spider cares that you're service is the 'absolute best service ever offered on the planet'? Nope.
* Be sure to use good text on your subpages as well.......the major search engines love text and will see ALL the text on your site, not just the index page. Google is trying to 'figure out' what your site is about. It will look at the whole site to do this. So, if one of your main keyword phrases is 'laser printed business checks', you should have a page devoted just to that.
* The key to good website rankings is to take advantage of the many keywords that relate to the services you offer, not just a few, and create pages for them.

2. Create a separate page for the many types of services you offer
Example: You have a website that sells autographs.
On the main page, have links to your major categories of autographs.
One link would be for 'Celebrity Autographs' one for 'Sports Autographs' etc.
Now, a visitor who is interested in sport autographs, will click on this link which will take him to the main page for 'Sports Autographs'. Now, break up the 'sports autographs' page with more links....
'Baseball Autographs'
'Football Autographs' etc.
Click on the 'Baseball Autographs' link, which will take you to a page about baseball autographs, or even just about baseball in general. Now, have links to each individual player......
'Sandy Koufax Autographs' etc.
This now allows you to use many more keywords to be found with in the search engines. For instance, you can now use keywords associated with baseball: baseball autographs, baseball signatures, baseball memorabilia etc.
Take it a step further with each individual player, who has an entire page devoted to him: 'Sandy Koufax Autographs' etc. Have information about Sandy Koufax on the page, such as batting average, etc.
Now, not only will you be listed higher for 'Sandy Koufax Autographs', but also for just 'Sandy Koufax'. This will allow you to pull in visitors who are interested in Sandy Koufax, who will come to your site for information, and end up purchasing his autograph, even if this wasn't the visitors original intention. You know the old saying.......the more you throw at the wall, the more will stick.

3. The bigger the website the better.... It's simple, the more pages your website has, the more keywords and phrases you can use. The major search engines will index all of your pages (for the most part).

4. What pages won't a search engine 'see'?
It is best to build a website in a language search engines can understand. If you have a site that takes all its information from a database on your server, the search engines likely will not index that information.
Example: You have a website that sells tickets.
Since the tickets you sell are for shows and events that are constantly changing, your webmaster probably will build you a site that is dependent on pulling information from a database. Spiders generally have a harder time 'seeing' information from these types of websites. I recommend that for every 'dynamic' or database driven service on your site, you also create a basic HTML page, that search engines can follow.
For instance, you may have a new comedy show coming to town that you want to sell tickets for. Just like the above example on autographs, you should create different pages and sections on each individual type of show. Have a link for 'Music Tickets', then a link for each type of music and create a separate page for that......like 'Rock and Roll Tickets', 'Country Music Tickets' etc..... all with their own separate page. Now, you have created a way for the search engines to 'see' that your website not only sells tickets, but also what types of tickets, down to the last detail. You will now find yourself listed in the search engines for a multitude of ticket related keywords. If your whole site is database driven, the number of keywords you will be found under will be much less.

5. Other Tips:
* Use keyword internal linking: Search engine spiders 'see' what each link to a page is being labeled.
Example: if you have a page that is about 'Sports Autographs', then label all your internal links to that page as 'Sports Autographs', rather then something like 'click here for more autographs'..... in other words, use keywords to label your internal links.
* Have at least your major links listed on the main (index) page. Also, a sitemap is a great tool for the search engines (and visitors) to use, to find all of your pages. Have a link to your sitemap from your index page.
* Make sure you have the location of your shop, office, store etc. on your main page (in HTML text), even if the services you offer are geared to a national audience, it is smart to appeal to your local audience as well. A good way to do this is to have your company name, address, town and state at the very bottom of your page, in an unobtrusive manner. Put it at the bottom of every page on your site.
* Its a good idea to make changes to your site at least occasionally. Since search engine spiders are constantly crawling the web, they will visit your site regularly. Updating your text (even just a little) or creating new pages shows that your site is active.
* Its ok to have external (outbound) links on your site. Again, it shows that your website is offering information. If your website is about 'Colorado Real Estate', then list some Colorado related sites such as: the official Colorado state website, or maybe a site that talks about restaurants in Colorado etc.
* Use 'Call to Action' language on your pages....i.e. 'click here to fill out our response form' or list your 800 number prominently on every page.
* HTML Tips
title= use this command for all your internal links (each link can have its own 'title')
Example: a href="http://www.web-promotion-specialist.com/searchengineoptimization.htm" title="Search Engine Optimization"
alt= use this command to describe what your images or photos are (search engines can't 'see' images, so you can tell the search engines what each image or photo is about)
Example: img src="images/logo.gif" width="131" height="80" alt= "Company Logo"

About the Author
Website Promotion by John Aschoff
http://www.web-promotion-specialist.com/
phone: 605-332-3799
email: jaschoff@web-promotion-specialist.com
Professional web promotion strategy for business. Link building, website text writing and search engine optimization. Articles and information on internet marketing.