What are the Disadvantages of Gateway Pages for SEO?
Gateway pages use tactics like cloaking and redirects. These techniques are black hat SEO, so it is clear that your website SEO gets affected. Gateway pages, especially, provide poor user experience and violate Google’s guidelines. Whenever Google detects a gateway page or doorway page, it may penalize or not index your website, resulting in dropping website ranking or even removing it from search results.Â
SEO tactics Associated with Gateway Pages include:
- You can make use of Meta refresh, or JavaScript redirects to forward users to another page on the website
- Creating keyword-specific, relevant, and informative content-rich doorway pages. These pages appear helpful and are designed to create a funnel of users that can be taken as insight.
Best Practices to Avoid Gateway Pages
- Optimize for Multiple Keywords: Rather than relying on gateway pages. Create pages on your website that rank for related keywords. A high-quality page can rank for multiple keywords and avoid keyword stuffing.
- Use Long-Tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are less competitive and can provide more targeted traffic. Use these keywords naturally and create high-quality content for them.
- Avoid Forced Redirects: Instead of a Meta refresh or JavaScript redirects. You can use 301 redirects (permanent) or 302 redirects (temporary) to ensure proper search engine indexing of the webpage.Â
- Focus on User Experience: design the pages that offer value and enhance user experience on the website.Â
FAQs
What is the difference between a Gateway page and a landing page?
A landing page is designed to provide relevant content and convert visitors into customers, and it doesn’t have any redirects. In contrast, a gateway page is typically designed only to rank for specific keywords without offering meaningful content or value.
How can I know I am on a gateway page?
Look for pages that have keyword stuffing and excessive links and do without offering any valuable information and are part of the website. In short, if a page redirects without providing value, it might be a gateway page.
What is a content-rich gateway page?
These are gateway pages designed to appear more legitimate by including content. Primarily aim to funnel users to other web pages without offering valuable information.
Can I report a gateway page to Google?
Yes, Google allows users to report gateway pages to help improve search quality. You can use the Google form to report such pages.
