How to do a non-spammy "doorway page"?

[marketingcupcake]

Hi there,

ISSUE:

I have a client who wishes to use a "doorway" page, but not in a spammy way. He would like to have a nice crisp URL for use in ads/brochures. The page is strictly a landing page (just with a separate URL).

DOORWAY/LANDING PAGE WILL BE:

Non-spammy -- There will be no attempt to optimize the landing page/no attempt to get the page to rank.

Strictly a vanity URL -- he likes the way a separate website looks in ads as opposed to a landing page on the existing website (i.e., www.websitename.com/landing page)

WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO:

I'm basically trying to figure out what the best things to do to protect his other sites (which are very high quality valuable sites which rank well) from getting punished.

STEPS I'M CONSIDERING:

Robots no follow

Separate hosting server

Different person's name on a private domain registration

Adding additional pages, so it's not a 1-page "doorway"

Many thanks in advance to anyone who would share their experience and help me protect my client in the best way possible. I've told him there are risks, but he still wants to go ahead.

MC

[SpokeHQ]

This post is deleted!

[Dr-Pete]

Just to clarify on a point William raised - do you want the "doorway" page to rank? That's where the trouble usually starts. Vanity URLs and landing pages are fine - if you canonical them, NOINDEX (or even 301-redirect, if you don't care if the URL changes), then Google isn't going to see any attempt at manipulative content.

The other issue is generally relevance. The problem in the past was when people used a doorway page to bring visitors in on one term or set of terms and then that was just a link to a wildly different site. If the landing page is relevant and non-duplicate, it's not nearly as big of a deal.

Personally, I would not do private registration, separate hosting, etc., because that honestly looks like you are trying to hide this page and get away with something. Just don't index the page, and you should be fine. I've used landing pages for paid search on all kinds of URLs, and as long as organic didn't see them, it's no problem at all.

[marketingcupcake]

Hi,

Thanks so much for your responses.

To clarify, as I said in my original question:
"There will be no attempt to optimize the landing page/no attempt to get the page to rank."

Adding NO FOLLOW makes perfect sense.

One follow up question...

I'm not sure if I would need the REL=Canonical if there's no duplication issue? Would NO FOLLOW be enough to handle any issues?

Thanks again,
MC

[Dr-Pete]

Sorry, I think I confused myself after I read the replies

Meta Robots (NOINDEX) is probably your best bet, then. Canonical would be a decent bet if you expected the landings pages to have inbound links or other ranking signals (like a 301, they can help consolidate those signals). If it's a landing page purely for purposes outside of organic search, though, simply blocking it is fine.

[marketingcupcake]

Thanks so much! That answers my question.