How Google's Doorway Pages Update Affects Local SEO

[MiriamEllis]

Agree with you, Ryan, that creativity is so key. One thing I have long stressed to my own clients is that owning a website = having become a publisher. You want to publish great stuff - not junk.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Adam,

Good comment! I'm also thinking about the multi-site scenario - particularly the multi-mini-site scenario. I've never been a fan of this approach and it does seem like the update could be applied to this scenario. Not sure yet ... but could be.

[MiriamEllis]

That's great, Linda! I bet you'll be getting stories from your community about things they see happening with this. Really glad you'll be covering it.

[rodwag67]

Any updates on this topic?  Thanks!

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Rod,

While there hasn't really been any more news that I'm aware of on this, you might like to check out the thread on Linda Buquet's forum, which has some additional discussion and some other links in it, for further reading:

http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/29401-google-warns-about-doorway-page-algo-update-could-affect-local.html

[LindaBuquet]

Thanks for sharing Miriam!

[rodwag67]

What are your thoughts if local landing pages are created similar to the gybo.com pages?

http://www.gybo.com/pennsylvania/ is one example (my state) - thanks for the link Miriam!

[MiriamEllis]

Hmm... that link is redirecting me to a homepage.

[rodwag67]

Google updated - now it goes to city/town: https://www.gybo.com/pa/norristown (after you put in your town)

So I'm thinking this is in line with what we currently do for town landing pages.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Rod,

I'm trying to understand what this service does. I looked up a random business in it and it simply seems to be giving a sense of how the business is listed on Google. I'm not seeing actual landing pages. Is there something particular that you are looking at on this site that concerns you in regards to doorway pages?

[rodwag67]

I'd like to hear the differences between doorway pages and landing pages.  I see Google utilizing multiple local landing pages, so if we follow creating pages similar to this we should be fine?

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Rod,

This is Google's def. of Doorway Pages: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721311

If you read through that carefully, I think the conclusion you may draw is that the difference between what Google is describing as a doorway page and what you may hear Local SEOs referring to as 'local landing pages' or 'city landing pages' or what have you, would be uniqueness and quality. This is my reading of this, anyway.

If you are going to create landing pages, as in the case of a local business serving multiple cities, I would suggest making maximum effort to ensure that each page is a thorough, unique, stand-alone resource for visitors. Don't throw up a bunch of thin, similar pages. Go for uniqueness and high quality. Hope this helps.

[rodwag67]

Thanks Miriam!

[joanna_mcd]

Miriam,

Thanks for jumping on this - very helpful to see some info already being aggregated and questions answered. I know I'm a little late to the party, but it sounds to me like you'd still recommend that businesses (such as a bank, clothing retailer, etc.) that have one business but locations in multiple cities and/or states, create location specific landing pages that match up with individual google+ business pages?

Obviously, each page has elements like a unique description and service set list as appropriate, unique hours/timezone, potentially customer reviews, unique driving directions from major areas, etc. Essentially - true content users would be looking at.

My understanding is this is still the "best practice" path for ranking in local pack and/or queries that drive location-specfic serps. Accurate?

Thanks again!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Joanna,

Yes - I would still recommend creating a unique page on your site for each location out of which you operate, and making maximum effort to ensure that the content on each page is unique and helpful.

[joanna_mcd]

Thanks Miriam

[MiriamEllis]

You're very welcome!

[B.Dog]

I'm super focused on creating non-duplicate content and creating blogs with killer info-graphics but I have a business I help where I created 10 specific city landing pages within the main site with great original content. Then I come across this site seasonsviewwindowanddoor.com and think, are you serious? How is this legal and it ranks high in any city search I do. Of course this conflicts my thinking about what to do. Any of your two cents is greatly appreciated

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Blake,

These 2 threads may help you diagnose competitors' rankings:

https://moz.com/community/q/do-you-know-what-s-triggering-your-local-packs

https://moz.com/community/q/top-local-organic-rankings-but-nowhere-to-be-found-on-google-snack-pack

Hope these help!

[B.Dog]

Although confusing, I appreciate the shared links to the threads. It's still not clear to me why google ranks the site I shared #1! in a highly competitive keyword. It's the same keyword in endless local cities but with that city in the title next to it. Does google still see those titles are technically different? So google doesn't recognize www.url.com/keyword-city#1 and www.url.com/keyword-city#2 as penalty worthy? Seems unfair to those taking time to make sure there are no keyword titles used more than once on a large site. OH AND...the content on these endless "city" pages have the EXACT same content on each one but the city in 3 or 4 different areas is switched out.