Doorway pages in SEO are one of the few spam types Google has defined twice, a decade apart, in nearly the same terms. That consistency is useful. It means the test has not moved, and anyone building location pages, product variants or programmatic templates can check their work against a stable standard rather than guessing.
This piece sets out both definitions, Google’s examples, and the questions Google suggested sites ask themselves. It is written to help you recognise doorways on your own site and avoid building them, not to explain how to build them.
What are doorway pages? Google’s current definition
Google’s spam policies call the practice doorway abuse: “Doorway abuse is when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries. They lead users to intermediate pages that aren’t as useful as the final destination.”
Two ideas carry the definition. The pages target similar queries, so they tend to come in sets. And they are intermediate: the visitor has to go somewhere else to get what they came for. A page that fully serves the searcher is not a doorway, even if it has many siblings.
Doorway pages examples from Google’s spam policy
Google lists four examples. The table pairs each one with the pattern you would see on a live site.
| Google’s example | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| “Having multiple websites with slight variations to the URL and home page to maximize their reach for any specific query” | A cluster of near-identical domains, each aimed at a variant of one query |
| “Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page” | City pages that differ only by the place name and all send visitors to the same contact page |
| “Generating pages to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of a site” | Landing pages whose only job is to push the visitor to the real page |
| “Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy” | Masses of filtered listing pages that read like search results, not like sections of a site |
The left column is quoted from Google; the right column is our description of the pattern, not Google’s.
The second example is the one most legitimate businesses need to think about. A plumber who serves twenty towns can have a page for each. The problem arises when the twenty pages are the same text with the town name swapped, and each exists only to catch a “plumber in [town]” query before sending the visitor to one generic booking form.
Doorway pages in SEO: Google’s 2015 update
In March 2015, as Search Engine Roundtable reported, Google announced a change aimed squarely at doorways. Its description then was that “Doorways are sites or pages created to rank highly for specific search queries” that can “lead to multiple similar pages in user search results, where each result ends up taking the user to essentially the same destination.”
The announcement was blunt about intent: “To improve the quality of search results for our users, we’ll soon launch a ranking adjustment to better address these types of pages.” It added a warning that still applies: “Sites with large and well-established doorway campaigns might see a broad impact from this change.” Note the word broad. Doorways at scale can affect the whole site, not just the doorway pages themselves.
Google also published questions for site owners to ask about pages that might be doorways. Paraphrased, they were:
- Is the page made to funnel visitors to another part of the site, rather than to serve them where they land?
- Does it target generic terms while its content is very specific?
- Does it duplicate existing aggregations of items, such as locations or products, mainly to collect search traffic?
- Does it exist only to capture affiliate traffic and pass visitors on?
- Is it isolated, hard or impossible to reach through the site’s own navigation?
The last question is the quickest test. Pages built for users sit inside a site’s hierarchy. Pages built for search engines are often reachable only from a sitemap or a footer list.
Location pages that are not doorways
The received wisdom is that location pages are risky by nature and best avoided. That reading goes further than Google does. Nothing in either definition forbids a page per city. The test is whether each page is useful in itself.
A location page earns its place when it carries information specific to that place: the address and opening hours of a real branch, the team who work there, local prices or service details, directions, reviews from customers in that area. A visitor who lands on it gets what they need without clicking through. That is the opposite of an intermediate page.
The same logic governs programmatic SEO. Templates are not the problem; empty templates are. Our analysis of what still works in programmatic SEO covers how to make each generated page carry its own data. Pages that cannot do that drift into thin content first and doorway territory second.
How to audit for doorways
Start by listing every set of pages built from one template and targeting variants of the same query. For each set, compare two or three pages side by side. If the only differences are a place name or a product attribute, the set is at risk.
Then follow the visitor. Where does each page send people? If every page in the set funnels to the same destination and offers nothing of its own on the way, that is the pattern Google describes. Check navigation too: can a user reach these pages by browsing, or only from search?
The fixes are consolidation or substance. Merge a set of near-identical pages into one strong page that lists the areas or options, and redirect the rest. Or give each page enough unique content that it serves the visitor on its own. Doorway pages are one of the techniques covered in our overview of black hat SEO, and our analysis of the Google spam update covers how algorithmic spam action tends to land.
One limitation is worth stating. Google has never published a threshold for how similar pages can be before they count as doorways, so judgement is unavoidable. The safest standard is the visitor’s: would someone who lands on this page be glad they did, or would they wonder why they were sent here?
Frequently asked questions
What are doorway pages in SEO?
Pages or sites created to rank for specific, similar search queries that lead users to intermediate pages less useful than the final destination.
Are city or location pages doorway pages?
Not if each one carries genuinely useful, location-specific content. They become doorways when they are near-identical and funnel visitors to one page.
Does Google penalise doorway pages?
Doorway abuse is named in Google’s spam policies. In 2015 Google said sites with large, well-established doorway campaigns might see a broad impact from its ranking adjustment.
How do I fix doorway pages?
Consolidate near-duplicates into one useful page and redirect the rest, or give each page enough unique content to serve the visitor on its own.
The takeaway A doorway is a page that exists to pass the visitor on. Build pages that answer the query where the visitor lands, and the number of pages stops being the issue.
