Duplicate Sites, Mirrors And Doorway Pages.
In the process of my day-to-day job optimizing and positioning corporate web sites for my clients, I often get emails and correspondence similar to the one you are about to read. The field of search engine optimization is littered with so-called “SEO experts” and people that promise you high search engine rankings with techniques that are forbidden by most search engines. The following is a true story.
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Hello Serge!
Just wanted you to know that I diligently read all your articles that you write on search engine optimization and I have learned so much from you since. I’m writing you regarding an article you wrote on your website about doorway and gateway pages. After listening to a number of people around me, I had planned on getting increased visibility from search engines to my site and some have told me that making a mirror of my existing site or a few “duplicates” might help me in the engines. They also told me each site should have a new, unique URL and unique domain name, a unique title and description tag, and body text “slightly” modified to focus on different keywords and key phrases might be a splendid idea. While I am at it, I also taught of a newer, fresher “look” with different background colour and font.
Now I just read your article on doorway and gateway pages and I strongly realize that the whole thing is a real bad idea. Instead you suggest creating keyword-rich content pages for my main website, and one should really concentrate on that single site for maximum long-term results and increased visibility in the search engines. My questions to you about this whole matter are:
1) Are you saying I need new pages or to rewrite just the marketing copy?
2) If you mean rewriting just the marketing copy, isn’t it necessary that the keywords I want to focus on should be in the page’s title and meta description tags? Let’s say I want to focus on five search phrases, the title & description would look pretty crowded, don’t you think?
3) I would like to concentrate on different search phrases that are related to the terms “career goals,” “get higher education”, “get a better future”, etc.
I think it is very tricky to try to make for example five new keyword-rich content pages and make them “merge in” with my current website, since the search terms are so general. I am aware that some companies put up “mirror sites” to accurately measure how small changes to their site might affect overall sales. Isn’t this forbidden? I sincerely hope you can help me with all my questions. Thanks again for such good professional advice and I am looking forward to more of the same!
Best wishes,
Muriel Westgate
Serge Thibodeau’s response:
Hello Muriel,
I’m happy you appreciate my advice. More and more business people have been writing to me lately to say it is on their “must read SEO list” which is encouraging. As for your questions, they are very good ones and very representative of the many others I constantly get regarding my article on doorway and gateway pages. It would appear that creating multiple websites and gateway pages has become such a common practice in the minds of so many search engine optimization technicians that my own way, and “correct way” of doing things is a difficult thing to accept for many would-be SEO’s.
Despite all that, I fully support and emphasize everything I said in my article because the more the search engine databases get “tainted” and distorted by duplicate content and mirror websites, the more the search engines will truly fight against it. In light of all this, I strongly recommend all site owners to stop thinking only of their own little search engine needs and instead think about the whole search community and the search engines themselves. If some search engine optimization technicians as an industry stubbornly refuse to work and cooperate with the search engines and continue to vastly undermine their search databases, in the end, everyone will lose and that would be a very sad thing in itself.
I will add that if Google has done so well it’s simply because of the high quality and relevancy of their search results. Most people love to search the web using Google because they are pretty certain they will find what it is they are looking for. These same people do not wish to have SEO’s and webmasters damaging or negatively affecting their search results because of their own little selfish needs. Google doesn’t care if your website is in the top five or top ten of their results pages. What they do care is relevancy and quality search results.
And if that means temporarily penalizing or permanently banning the websites that are of similar nature and have very similar content to another existing site, then they are in their full right to do so. Remember, it is their search engine and they have the right to do what they want with it. Google, or for that matter any other search engine where you don’t pay to get listed don’t owe anybody anything. All of this means that they hold all the rights and everyone who wants to be listed must all play by their own rules.
Having said that Muriel, I will answer each of your questions one by one:
“You suggest that I create keyword-rich content pages for my main site…
1) Do you mean new pages altogether or to rewrite just the marketing copy?”
You can do one or the other. Whatever meets the needs of your website and of your business. If you already have a lot of text, then yes you can rewrite it to incorporate your keyword and key phrases for that particular page. If on the other hand you don’t have much copy or many pages, then yes, you should create new pages and concentrate your copy around your three or four keyword phrases targeted for that single page.
If you create new pages, they need to be blended into your site as regular, standard pages too. Remember that they should not be stand-alone pages or “orphaned pages” that are found only in the search engines. They all need to be text-linked within your site’s current page navigation system.
2) If you mean rewriting the marketing copy, isn’t it necessary that the keywords I want to focus on would be in the page’s title and meta description tags?
Muriel, yes absolutely. When I said creating new keyword-rich marketing copy, I never meant to insinuate that this is the only thing you should do. After proper keyword research using WordTracker, your marketing copy is the first thing to do, but of course you will still have to create title and meta description tags to match the rest of your copy. To be real successful, write the copy first and only then your meta tags.
3) I would like to focus on different search phrases that are related to the terms “career goals,” “get higher education”, “get a better future etc. I think it is very difficult to try to make five new keyword-rich content pages and make them blend in with my current site, since the search terms are so general.>Muriel, if it sounds difficult, it’s because anything you do for the long term will probably be slightly difficult. In SEO, quick fixes are a thing of the past. One very helpful indicator I like to use is this: if you’re having trouble working particular keywords or key phrases into your pages, then most likely you’re targeting the wrong search terms for that particular page or section. Too vague or too general search terms will not convert your visitors into customers and therefore you shouldn’t target those. If you can’t write about them so that they make sense, then they’re not the right keywords for your site. It’s just as simple as that!
Search engine optimization is a science as well as an art. It’s not about getting the most traffic you can get for any keywords or key phrases that are out there. SEO is about bringing highly targeted visitors to your website who are looking for precisely what your site is offering. I can’t imagine any other form of marketing that can do so much for so little. People looking and searching for your specific products or services are already very qualified future buyers. Sometimes the “future” is a lot closer than you might think.
They’re searching for something to learn more about it or to just go and buy it. If you have that certain something they’re looking for, it’s important that your site is among the first one they find in the search engine results pages. There’s a big mystery out there that says you should bring in customers looking for things that might be similar to what you have, and then convince them to try your product instead. That could work for other forms of advertising, but that’s not what SEO really is. Think highly targeted keywords and think exact keyword phrases.
And I know that people put up mirror sites to accurately measure how small changes to their site affect sales. Isn’t this allowed either?
Absolutely not! Mirror sites are usually negatively seen by all search engines. You should use your regular site to test your marketing copy. You can also use pay-per-click (PPC) ad programs to test “landing pages” and sales copy. Plus, you can test site pages through many of the search engine pay-per-inclusion (PPI) programs since they pick up your new content fairly quickly.
The fact remains that search engines are rapidly moving away from allowing any kinds of “tricks”. You might still see plenty of sites that get away with some tricks. However, at least where Google is concerned, you’ll be seeing it much less often in the future.
Author :
Serge Thibodeau of Rank For Sales