Doorway pages are sites or pages created to rank for particular, often closely related search queries, which then lead users to an intermediate or other page instead of giving them what they searched for. Google lists doorway abuse in its spam policies. The classic pattern is a set of near-identical pages for each city or keyword variation, all pushing visitors to the same signup page.
Examples from Google's policy
- Multiple domains or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page
- Pages generated to funnel visitors into the usable or relevant part of a site
- Substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy
Doorways in SaaS
SaaS sites rarely build doorways deliberately, but templates drift into them. "[Product] for [industry]" pages that differ only in the industry name, "alternative to [competitor]" pages with identical copy, or city landing pages for a product with no local element can all look like doorways if they exist only to catch searches.
How to avoid them
Each page should be a real destination: it should contain information specific to its topic that a visitor needs, and it should make sense to reach by browsing the site, not only from search. If you would not link to a page from your navigation or a hub, ask why it exists.
Example
Industry pages with real substance
Hypothetical scheduling tool Rookhaven had thirty "scheduling software for [industry]" pages with the same copy. It kept six industries where it had customers and features specific to them, rewrote each with relevant workflows, compliance notes and customer quotes, linked them from a solutions hub, and redirected the rest to the hub.
Common mistakes
Swapping a word and calling it unique
Changing only the city or industry name does not make a page useful for that city or industry.
Questions
Not if they offer real local information, such as an office, local team, service details or local customers. They become doorways when they are copies with a place name swapped in.
