Google, Doorways, and Dmoz Dilemma Options

[zing]

Hi, I just joined. I have posted this on other forums also as I am researching for the best answer.

Here's the situation:

A site with 250 doorway pages. Most of the industry keywords are enjoying top 10 positions on Yahoo and MSN. Google remains elusive.

Some pointers:

1. There is no listing of the site in DMOZ.
2. Some doorway pages show up in Google results, but only on 3rd page and beyond.
3. Google rankings can be enhanced if a listing in DMOZ is procured.
4. DMOZ listings don’t look possible with the doorway pages
5. If doorways are removed, the site will loose all ranks in Yahoo and MSN.

Can someone please show the best way to go for getting top results on Google also, without compromising Yahoo and MSN positions?

Thanks in Advance.

[randfish]

zing - welcome to cre8asite.

I have to say that I would personally ditch the doorways - I know you'll lose your MSN & Yahoo! rankings, but in the long term, it's totally worth it. You'll be able to sleep at night knowing you gained your rankings organically and can't be tossed out of the index by a competitor's spam report or an intelligent spam detector.

DMOZ is just one link - it can be a good boost, but it's just one link, and there are plenty of ways to get an equally powerful link. With DMOZ, I always say - "fire and forget".

What you need is great content and great links - trust me when I say that this combination will get you high rankings at all the SEs - and let you sleep at night too.

[zing]

Thanks Randfish. Easier said than done. :stress: Consider yourself in my situation.

Cannot afford to loose sales @ 10 grand plus a month. :shock:

1. Can you suggest some way of transitioning out from black doorways to white content pages (of similar ability) without losing my ranks?

2. What about redirects? can I make an identical page and swap it with the doorway keeping white meta info intact and removing black stuffed keywords and other spam techniques? Would a redirect be effective here... need redirects because i wanna rename the files with keywords and dont want 404s from search engines

[zing]

Parallel threads for more information ( feel free to remove the urls if there are any issues):

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showth...42718#post42718

http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/sho...7061#post187061

http://searchengineforums.com/apps/webmast...ad::1112980331/

[sanity]

Welcome Zing

We don't have issues linking to other forums.

As Rand said Dmoz is only one link. I'm puzzled as to why you feel that one link is the answer to your prayers.

[randfish]

Zing -

I think you might want to just start a whole new domain and go wholly organic with it. Don't forget - different registrar, different C-Block IP address, different registrant information (or use anonymous, etc.). You don't want the SEs banning that one if they ever discover your spam page.

That is probably what I would do. I understand your dilemma and am sympathetic. I know what it's like to have to maintain a revenue stream (although I've never personally spammed - always been too afraid on penalties).

The ethics of search spam are probably better saved for another thread, but I think that just in terms of SEO success over the long haul, you'll be better off building and optimizing a second sites - great content & great links. There's lots of good resources linked to here at cre8 and the website hospital can help too.

Good luck!

[zing]

Thank you very much for your help Sophie and Rand. A new domain is the way to go, I guess. Nevertheless, I would have to transition out the doorways on the present site also. Cannot really take a chance... what with all the incoming links gained and the other fine points of getting the biz till here.

So, to go about it, the question of redirects is still there. The files need to be renamed as they have been named in a pretty obvious way... don't want some competitor to blow the whistle... Moreover, URL optimization with the right keywords for the filenames would make a significant difference in the organic rankings. Question about redirects is that how do the search engines take it? Would a redirected page be more thoroughly scrutinized, and perhaps, be discounted?

Any help here would be appreciated.

[randfish]

Re-directs supposedly work very well for re-pointing existing pages (301) at all of the major search engines. However, based on the frequency with which I see complaints in the forums about search engines not following the 301s, I would guess that it can still be an issue. My recommendation would be to go into it with your eyes open - wary and careful is the best way to stay safe. Watch the SEs like a hawk and check when they re-cache your 301d pages.

Good luck!