What is a Doorway Page?

Doorway pages are website pages created specifically to gain high ranking in a search engine index and to manipulate the users. These pages are generally stuffed with some keywords and phrases and lead to multiple similar pages in search results where each result takes you to the same destination.

How does a Doorway Page Work? 

A doorway page is basically a technique to SPAM the Internet search engine with several similar pages with minor variation. They sometimes use redirection or cloaking and redirect the visitor to another page without their knowledge. It is known as a black SEO technique. Doorway pages are also called portal pages, bridge pages, jump pages or gateway pages. These are some low-quality pages often machine-generated optimized for specific keyword or phrase. In most of the cases, these pages are redirected with a fast meta refresh command to another page. The doorway pages also use JavaScript to redirect the user to another page, the page the website wants them to visit. As the search engines penalize the websites for using Meta refresh command the doorways often trick a user to manually click through the next site. Websites also use scripting languages like Perl or PHP to create dynamic doorway pages. While the normal doorway pages are often easy to identify, the content rich doorways trick the users further by maintaining a more natural appearance. These pages do not use redirection, rather they offer standard links as calls to action like click here to enter. Search engines discourage gateway pages and have strict guidelines against using this technique, but these pages often make their way through paid inclusion programs.