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Doorway Pages

A webpage created to rank for specific search queries and redirect users to another destination, providing little original value rather than serving its own content.

If you have created city-specific pages that differ only by location name, you may already have doorway pages without realising it.

Key points

  • Avoid creating near-duplicate pages that swap only a keyword or location name.
  • Never use a page that immediately redirects without offering standalone user value.
  • Do not confuse doorway pages with legitimate landing pages that target intent but still provide unique content.
  • Doorway behaviour can exist within one site; same-domain pages are not automatically safe.

A plumbing company’s 50 city pages

A plumbing company created 50 city pages for suburbs around Melbourne. Each page had 150 words of identical text except the city name, and all pages used a 301 redirect to the main contact page. After Google’s 2015 algorithmic adjustment targeting doorway abuse, none of the pages ranked. Within three months, all 50 were deindexed, and the site received a manual action for thin content.

Three things doorway pages are not

  • Not a landing page A landing page serves a specific campaign with unique content and a clear call to action. A doorway page exists only to rank and funnel traffic elsewhere.
  • Not a location page A legitimate location page provides store hours, services, or directions specific to that place. A doorway page swaps the city name but offers no local value.
  • Not a redirect strategy Using a 301 redirect to send users from a thin page to a main page is a classic doorway pattern. Legitimate redirects serve moved content, not manipulated rankings.

Three signs you have a doorway page

  • Thin content If the page has fewer than 200 words and the text is mostly keyword variations, it likely offers no user value and risks being flagged as doorway abuse.
  • Immediate redirect If the page automatically redirects to another URL without user interaction, Google may treat it as a doorway page designed to manipulate rankings.
  • Only keyword variation When a set of pages differ only by a single keyword or location name and lead to the same destination, they are classic doorway pages.

Common questions

What is the difference between a doorway page and a door?

A doorway page is a web page, not a physical door. The term describes a page that acts as an entry point to funnel users elsewhere.

Are doorway pages still penalised by Google?

Yes. Google’s spam policies explicitly classify doorway abuse as a violation, and algorithmic updates since 2015 continue to target them.

How do doorway pages affect SEO?

They waste crawl budget, dilute site quality, and risk manual actions or ranking drops. They are considered black hat SEO behaviour.

Sources

  1. Google Search Central - Spam policies: Doorway abuse Official Google policy defining doorway abuse as spam.
  2. Ahrefs SEO Glossary - Doorway Page Clear definition and examples of doorway pages.
  3. Google Search Help thread - doorway pages explanation Community explanation with Google moderator input.
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