Which of these examples are doorway pages?

[Amor2005]

Hi there,

I am soon to launch a new platform/directory website, however, have a concern over doorway pages. I have read many articles on the difference between Doorway and Landing pages and do have a good understanding, however, am still very anxious that what I intend to do will be risking Google penalties.

I have looked at other directory/platform websites and have noticed that a lot of them are still using doorway pages and are not getting penalised. So I was wondering if someone wouldn't mind kindly letting me know their opinion on which of the following examples are doorway pages and which are not so I can better understand what I can and cannot do?

Example 1: When I Google 'piano lessons new york' and 'trumpet lessons new york' I get the following 'landing pages' in search:

https://takelessons.com/new-york/piano-lessons

https://takelessons.com/new-york/trumpet-lessons

To me, the above pages are definitely doorway pages as they are very similar with content and text and are simply an intermediary step between the Google search and their listings pages for piano/trumpet teachers in New York. Is this correct?

Example 2: When I Google 'piano lessons Sydney' I get presented with the following web page in search:

http://www.musicteacher.com.au/directory/sydney-nsw/lessons/piano/

I would think that this is NOT a doorway page as the user has been taken directly to the search results page in the directory and the page doesn't seem to have been set up for the sole purpose of listing in search results for 'Piano Lessons in Sydney'.

Example 3: When I Google 'pet minding Sydney' I get presented with the following two pages in search:

https://www.madpaws.com.au/petsitters/Sydney-New-South-Wales?type=night&service=1&from=0&to=99&city=Sydney&state=New-South-Wales

https://www.pawshake.com.au/petsitters/Sydney%252C%2520New%2520South%2520Wales%252C%2520Australia

Like Example 2, I don't think these pages would be classified as doorway pages as they too direct to the search results page in the site directory instead of an intermediary page.

What do you think?

Thanks so much in advance for your expertise and help!

Kind Regards, Adrian

[seanginnaw]

Hey Adrian,

In my opinion, none of the above are 'doorway pages' (sorry!).

A 'doorway' page is one of many pages that webmasters use as spam entry points to a website and are typically targeted towards the same keyword with a variable attached - most commonly 'locations'.

Here's an example - e cigarette online retailers tend to have little to no local presence within an area but they will build a list of pages to make it look as if they do:

• http://vapour-hut.co.uk/free-offer/2584/free-e-liquid-in-ballykeeran/1.html
• http://vapour-hut.co.uk/free-offer/2634/free-e-liquid-in-ballymore/1.html
• http://vapour-hut.co.uk/free-offer/8475/free-e-liquid-in-castletown/1.html

In this example, they've even gone as far as to add in a list of these URLs (navigable from the footer) to ensure search engines crawl them - http://vapour-hut.co.uk/e-cig-town.php.

It's all a bit of a black hat tactic to grasp a whole bunch of search traffic that they otherwise shouldn't have. In your first example, the two pages for 'trumpet' and 'piano lessons', although similar, are targeting vastly different searcher intents which are relevant to the originating website - ergo they are not doorway pages.

I hope that makes sense

All the best,

Sean

[Amor2005]

Hi Sean,

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my query! I think I understand now!

Wishing you a merry Xmas and a great 2017!

Thanks again!!

Very best!

Adrian