Doorway (from the English doorway — an entrance or opening) — is a web page or website created primarily to attract traffic from search results for low- and medium-volume queries. Its goal — is to redirect the traffic it receives to a target resource, landing page, or offer.
Essentially, a doorway serves as an intermediate entry point. The creator does not develop the project to provide value to the reader, but generates pages for specific search keywords, captures organic traffic, and redirects it further through the funnel.
How it works
A user searches for a specific service, brand, or product. For example: «download [App Name]» or a promo code for a bet). An affiliate marketer optimizes the page for this group of queries. When the page appears in search results and the user clicks the search link, the traffic is redirected further in one of two ways:
-
Through an automatic redirect (black-hat doorways): a script instantly redirects the user to the offer without showing the original website.
-
Through clicks on buttons or links (white-hat/gray-hat doorways): the page imitates a useful article or service interface, but all buttons («Download», «Play», «Order») lead to an affiliate link.
Doorways in traffic arbitrage
In traffic arbitrage, doorways are used as a source of free organic search traffic (SEO organic traffic). This method is popular in niches with high commercial demand and restrictions on direct paid advertising: gambling, betting, dating, software, and nutra.
The main difference between a doorway and a regular content website — is its goal and approach to content. A content website is aimed at retaining the audience and solving the user's problem, while a doorway — is focused exclusively on capturing a click from search results and immediately redirecting it to an affiliate program.
Types of doorways
-
By traffic routing method: redirect-based (the user is automatically redirected to the required page) and non-redirect-based (the user clicks buttons or banners manually).
-
By generation method: automatic (created in bulk using specialized software — doorway generators, parsers, and AI) and static (built using ready-made templates).
-
By placement type: on your own dropped domains, on subdomains, on free trusted platforms (Telegraph, Notion, Google Sites, GitHub), or on third-party resources.
Risks and specifics
Creating doorways is considered a Black Hat SEO method and directly violates the rules of search engines (Google, Yandex). Search algorithms are trained to detect unnatural text generation and aggressive redirects. As soon as a search engine identifies a doorway, the pages or the entire website may lose rankings or be penalized by the search engine. Because of this, doorway operations are built around scale and a constant pipeline: while old networks are being penalized, new ones are launched to replace them.
