Have you ever been searching for something and landed on a website whose homepage displayed a message like, "Our site has moved, please click here"?
Upon clicking that message, did you end up on a completely different website with a topic roughly similar to the query you were interested in? Or, in another scenario, were you immediately redirected to another online resource without any message at all?
Most likely, your answer is yes! Such "redirecting sites" exist for a reason; they were created so that you will land on that particular online resource, often unintentionally. These "redirecting sites" are called doorway pages (or doorways).
Doorways are pages that serve as a bridge to redirect users to other sites. Doorway pages do not answer search queries and have no inherent value.
A Doorway page is an SEO technique created specifically to achieve high search engine rankings by deceiving both search engines and visitors. Also known as a "bridge page," it is designed for search engines, not for real users. Its purpose is to achieve rankings for numerous target phrases, often focusing on long-tail keywords.
Doorways and Their Classification
It is quite difficult to separate one type of doorway from another, but doorways can be conditionally divided into several types.
"Black Doorways." These represent a page that includes an automatic redirect to a "white" online resource, thus violating search engine usage policies. Such a redirect can be implemented in various ways. The goal of these doorways is solely to present search robots with an optimized page to boost rankings in the search results.
Most often, "black doorways" are created using special programs called doorway generators (a doorway generator is a program that simplifies the task of creating doorways and helps automate this process). Their main feature is that these doorways are often registered on free hosting services.
"Grey Doorway" is another type of doorway. These doorways do not use automatic redirection. Unlike "black" types, their goal is not to attract targeted visitors but to gain link juice for the main online resource. To achieve this, their page is created with meaningful content that includes several links that will redirect you to the promoted online resource.
"White Doorways." Such a site has meaningful content and uses original graphic design. If you land on a "white doorway," the user will see a link to the promoted online resource in addition to the advertising text itself. You can then decide for yourself whether or not to follow this link to the promoted online resource. Such doorways are not considered a form of Black Hat SEO.
How Doorway Pages Affect SEO
SEO specialists use doorway pages to secure top positions in search results. They are quickly indexed using Black Hat methods and provide almost instantaneous results. These pages are easy to set up because they are created using templates or automated tools.
Doorway pages, like any other Black Hat SEO technique, increase traffic in the short term, but they damage the site in the long run. Sooner or later, the site will be blacklisted by Google.
Until 2015, doorway pages were a common practice in SEO. Webmasters manipulated search engines using keywords and hidden text to achieve higher rankings. In March 2015, Google updated itsWebmaster Guidelines and introduced penalties for such pages. They are now considered a form of cloaking and are recommended to be avoided.
When using doorway pages in SEO, be prepared for the consequences:
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Search engines actively penalize sites that use doorway pages, as they consider them a form of spam and a type of manipulation. Penalties range from a drop in search results to complete removal from search engine indexes.
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Doorway pages typically do not provide a proper user experience, often containing content that is low-value or irrelevant. This frustrates visitors and pushes them away from the site, increasing the bounce rate. This, in turn, harms the site's reputation, reducing the chances of further interaction with your content.
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While doorway pages temporarily increase traffic by targeting specific keywords, they do not ensure sustainable organic growth. Once search engines detect the doorways, the site's visibility and organic traffic will suffer, leading to a decrease in overall site performance.
All of this being said, creating doorways in 2026 is no longer particularly relevant, given the constantly updated search engine algorithms aimed at detecting them.
Creating a system of doorways requires a lot of time and effort; as a result, you can easily lose them all. Escaping the filters applied to doorway sites is practically impossible, unless you use the aforementioned White Doorways.
However, considering the costs of creating, filling, and promoting them, it would be more rational to direct all efforts to working on the main website. If you choose the promotion methods used by Grey Hat SEO, you can achieve a safer and more profitable effect. Still using doorway sites? If so, contact us, and we will select the better strategy for your business.
