When are Doorway Pages Considered Abuse?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by jocknotech, Oct 17, 2004.

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  1. #1
    If I have a site that is marketing real estate in different areas (say states)...and make each state a doorway page:

    <html>
    <HEAD>
    <TITLE>STATE 1</TITLE>
    <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="keyword a,keyword b,keyword c, etc...">
    <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Your Guide to STATE 1 real estate....">
    <meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
    <META NAME="Author" CONTENT="webmaster@..............com">

    So now I have 50 doorway pages...each does have a different URL...

    for instance:

    www.......com/STATE 1
    www.......com/STATE 2

    I ask this because my PR dropped from a PR5 to a PR4, and wondered why and this is the change I made. Is my drop in PR a penalty of sorts?

    When is creating doorway pages considered abuse and is it considered abuse?

    Thanks,

    jocknotech
     
    jocknotech, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  2. jocknotech

    jocknotech Peon

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    #2
    I meant ENTRY PAGES not doorway pages. Sorry. Pages within the same domain I gave seperate TILES, DESCRIPTIONS etc.
     
    jocknotech, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  3. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #3
    As soon as you have them, it's considered abuse. :)
     
    digitalpoint, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  4. jocknotech

    jocknotech Peon

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    #4
    Shawn,

    Thank youf for your response. Even entry pages? I posted before asking what entry pages were as I was told by a DB designer that I should use only one TITLE DESC and META TAGS...though saw others using different ones...and experienced SEO's here recommended that I take advantage of ENTRY PAGES and that the advice I received from my DB designer was not correct.

    I see competition with seperate ENTRY PAGE TITLES, DESC, METAs for each of their seperate secitions and they rank well.

    Should all pages have the same TITLE, DESC, METAs...?

    Thanks,

    jocknotech
     
    jocknotech, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  5. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #5
    An "entry" page *is* a doorway page.

     
    digitalpoint, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  6. steve sardell

    steve sardell Peon

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    #6
    Hi jocknotech,

    The term to best describe what you are attempting to accomplish is landing page (not the orphaned landing page used for ppc) basically any page that will show in the serps where your visitor enters your site. It is a content page. Yes, you should have a distinct title for every page as well as a distinct page description. Engines still look at pages rather than sites in toto, so, IMO it is best to title your page what it is, and give an accurrate description of that page.
     
    steve sardell, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  7. Will.Spencer

    Will.Spencer NetBuilder

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    #7
    Abuse is often in the eye of the beholder. There are several competing schools of thought regarding what is and what is not Black Hat SEO

    Doorway Pages are generally considered to be a social evil, but the definition of what is and what is not a doorway page can be somewhat vague.

    Properly designed doorway pages do work to increase traffic.

    Doorway pages that do not use META REFRESH or JavaScript redirection are difficult for search engines to algorithmically filter out.

    A PR drop that is not to 0 is almost always a result of fewer inbound links, or the PR of your inbound links dropping.
     
    Will.Spencer, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  8. hightide13

    hightide13 Peon

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    #8
    PR is not based on content. So like Will.Spencer said those pages are not what affected your PR. Most likely what happened is you lost backlinks or sites that are linked to you have lost backlinks.
     
    hightide13, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  9. DarrenC

    DarrenC Peon

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    #9
    Obvious doorway pages are ones hosted on another domain and designed to force traffic from this other domain to your primary domain, these type of pages are frowned upon simply because they hold no information or content, and search engines are there to enable someone to find information or content.

    Instead design pages optimised, containing keword related content, non spam, with links to other pages within your website on the SAME domain.
     
    DarrenC, Oct 17, 2004 IP
  10. Mel

    Mel Peon

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    #10
    IMO any page that has content which is useful to the viewer is not a "doorway page". Ideally every page of your site should be a doorway or landing page.

    Google is still updating PR and backlinks, it might be best to wait a day or two and see how things settle. A possible cause for your drop minght be that Google appear to have adjusted the way they convert the Real PR numbers into what they show on the toolbar.
     
    Mel, Oct 17, 2004 IP