2.3 Body content, quality & non-commodity ✦HighVerified
Doorway pages
Pages created mainly to funnel users from many similar searches to one destination are doorway pages, which Google treats as spam. Real, useful landing pages are the alternative.
What it is
Near-identical pages targeting locations/keywords.
Why it matters
Explicit spam-policy violation.
How to fix it
Consolidate into genuinely useful pages.
How to find it on your site
- Identify sets of near-identical pages targeting slight query or location variants that all funnel to one place.
- Assess whether each offers genuine, distinct value.
- Consolidate them or rebuild them as genuinely useful pages.
- Remove pure doorways.
Cross-reference to ranking and citation factors
Doorway pages violate spam policy and risk manual action. Genuine, distinct pages are the safe and effective route.
Impact
Medium-high; penalty risk. Direct.
Evidence
Doorways violate spam policies. Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search