Optimizing Local Landing Pages for Google

In an effort to minimize webspam, Google recently announced their plan to roll out a new Doorway Page Penalty algorithm. Doorway Pages are search engine optimized pages whose sole purpose is to capture online search traffic and funnel that traffic through to the actually usable or relevant portions of a domain's website. Doorway Pages provide little-to-no value to the end user and are majorly used to optimize a business's search rank for several different physical locations.

But how will this new penalty algorithm differentiate between spammy Doorway Pages and Local Landing Pages such as property, neighborhood, city, or school pages?

Here's the difference between a Doorway Page and a Local Landing Page:

Doorway Pages are sites or pages created to rank highly for specific search queries. They are bad for users because they can lead to multiple similar pages in user's search results where each result ends up taking the user to essentially the same destination. They can also lead users to intermediate pages that are not as useful as the final destination. Here are some examples of doorways, according to Google:

• Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page
• Pages generated to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site(s)
• Substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy