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Monday, March 16, 2015
Google's Search Quality team is continually working on ways in which to minimize the impact of
webspam on users. This includes
doorway pages.
We have a long-standing view that doorway pages that are created solely for search engines can
harm the quality of the user's search experience.
For example, searchers might get a list of results that all go to the same site. So if a user
clicks on one result, doesn't like it, and then tries the next result in the search results page
and is taken to that same site that they didn't like, that's a really frustrating experience.
Over time, we've seen sites try to maximize their "search footprint" without adding clear, unique
value. These doorway campaigns manifest themselves as pages on a site, as a number of domains, or
a combination thereof. To improve the quality of search results for our users, we'll soon launch a
ranking adjustment to better address these types of pages. Sites with large and well-established
doorway campaigns might see a broad impact from this change.
To help webmasters better understand our guidelines, we've added clarifying examples and freshened
our definition of
doorway pages in our Quality
Guidelines.
Here are questions to ask of pages that could be seen as doorway pages:
Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or
relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site's user experience?
Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very
specific?
Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already
exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic?
Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without
creating unique value in content or functionality?
Do these pages exist as an "island?" Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other
parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites
created just for search engines?
If you have questions or feedback about doorway pages, please visit our
webmaster help forum.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle is launching a ranking adjustment to address doorway pages that negatively impact search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDoorway pages are created to manipulate search rankings and provide a poor user experience by funneling users to irrelevant content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle's updated guidelines provide a clearer definition of doorway pages and offer examples to help webmasters.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSites with extensive doorway campaigns can expect to see significant changes in their search rankings due to this update.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters can refer to a list of questions provided by Google to assess if their pages qualify as doorway pages and take corrective actions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google's Search Quality team is implementing a ranking adjustment to combat doorway pages, which are designed solely for search engines and negatively impact user experience. These pages often lack unique value, duplicate content, or funnel traffic without providing useful information. Webmasters are advised to evaluate their pages using provided questions to assess if they're optimized for users or solely for search traffic. Sites with significant doorway page campaigns may experience a notable impact from this update. The team also clarified doorway pages in the Quality Guidelines.\n"],null,["# An update on doorway pages\n\nMonday, March 16, 2015\n\n\nGoogle's Search Quality team is continually working on ways in which to minimize the impact of\nwebspam on users. This includes\n[doorway pages](/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/doorway-pages).\n\n\nWe have a long-standing view that doorway pages that are created solely for search engines can\nharm the quality of the user's search experience.\n\n\nFor example, searchers might get a list of results that all go to the same site. So if a user\nclicks on one result, doesn't like it, and then tries the next result in the search results page\nand is taken to that same site that they didn't like, that's a really frustrating experience.\n\n\nOver time, we've seen sites try to maximize their \"search footprint\" without adding clear, unique\nvalue. These doorway campaigns manifest themselves as pages on a site, as a number of domains, or\na combination thereof. To improve the quality of search results for our users, we'll soon launch a\nranking adjustment to better address these types of pages. Sites with large and well-established\ndoorway campaigns might see a broad impact from this change.\n\n\nTo help webmasters better understand our guidelines, we've added clarifying examples and freshened\nour definition of\n[doorway pages](/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/doorway-pages) in our Quality\nGuidelines.\n\nHere are questions to ask of pages that could be seen as doorway pages:\n\n- Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site's user experience?\n- Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very specific?\n- Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic?\n- Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without creating unique value in content or functionality?\n- Do these pages exist as an \"island?\" Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites created just for search engines?\n\n\nIf you have questions or feedback about doorway pages, please visit our\n[webmaster help forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/go/community).\n\nPosted by Brian White, Google Webspam Team"]]
