Doorway Pages

Google defines doorway pages as sites built solely to rank for specific search terms and then funnel visitors elsewhere. Classic examples are location pages that differ only in the city name and otherwise contain the exact same text.

Google explicitly lists them in the spam policies. The consequence can be a manual penalty; more often, the effect simply fizzles out: the pages do not rank, accumulate impressions without clicks, and dilute your own structure because multiple pages compete for the same terms.

The difference from a legitimate regional Landing page lies in the content. A real location page brings something that no other page has: a regional reference, a customer review from there, specific details about the collaboration. Anyone who cannot deliver that is better off not building the page at all.

A practical test: comparing the word count and text of two location pages side by side. If only the location name differs, they are doorway pages, regardless of the intent behind them.

We target websites specifically to search terms. Learn more at SEO support.

Interested in other topics? Here we have a few more suitable explanations.