Search Engines
'Doorways' to Higher Positions

A problem with Search Engines is that they are not human. They use completely different criteria to us when evaluating a site - mostly based on their analysis of text (and to a much lesser extent meta tags).

There is a real danger that if you manage to optimise a given web page to get a high ranking with a Search Engine, it may turn out to be very un-appealing for a human visitor - or at least look rather odd. Of course, web pages should be designed to attract a human audience - we mustn't get carried away with obsessions about Search Engines!

One solution to this problem is to use what is sometimes called a 'doorway' or 'gateway' page (see example of a doorway page here). This acts rather like a movie trailer or poster depicting highlights from the main feature. A doorway page is designed to present a succinct chunk of information, focusing perhaps on one product or service, so that it achieves a high ranking with the engines for just one or two keywords. Doorway pages should be used with great care these days, as they can be interpreted by search engines as deceptive if presented in the wrong way. Generally it is better to use micro-sites which have genuine and useful content that links back to the main site.

A doorway page is not normally accessible from within a web site. Only when a searcher sees the page listed in the results of a search engine query does it get any human attention. A visitor landing at a doorway page via a Search Engine can then see what the main web site is about and choose to click on a link there - or not.

A doorway is like an intermediate guidance beacon between a Search Engine and a parent web site. Doorways can be a very effective means of improving a site's ranking, without having to change the site itself. A web site can have hundreds of doorways targeting many specific keywords and tuned for individual Search Engines. Doorways are thus particularly appropriate for web sites with many different products or services to promote, as the keyword dilution factor (so many keywords competing with each other on any given web page) results in low rankings all round.

Doorways are also an effective way to get around problems due to database driven sites and use of frames in site construction which the search engines are unable to index or follow links properly.