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WHAT'S A GATEWAY PAGE?

Gateway pages (crawler pages, pointer pages or hallway pages) in contrast with doorway pages, are pages NOT created to rank high on search engines.

A gateway page, it is a page that exists independent on your web site. Meaning that you can't access to it from the main site.

Once someone goes from your gateway page to your main site, it can only return to the gateway page with the back button.

WHAT ARE GATEWAY PAGES FOR?

They are created for three reasons:

* People create gateway pages because some engines seem to give a boost to pages which their spider find, rather than pages that are submitted by hand to the search engines.

So instead of submitting all your main site's pages to the search engines, you would submit your gateway page and help the search engines "find you".

And the spider, being so happy that "it found you" will give you a little bit of a boost in the search engine's ranking.

* They also exist because it's virtually impossible to rank well for more than a couple of keywords and phrases with only one web page. So if you want to target to some other keywords related to your site, you must construct gateway pages.

* The third reason is: if you create an affiliate program and allow your members to send prospects directly to your main site, sooner or later you will have a member that likes spamming and you will find your site closed by his fault.

To avoid this risk, you should never allow your members to point their ads directly to your main site. They should point them to gateway pages that will redirect the visitors to your main site.

SHOULD YOU USE MORE THAN ONE DOMAIN FOR GATEWAY PAGES?

Yes you should, because if your gateway page is hosted on a separate domain from your main domain, this will supposedly result in another small boost for your pages. A different domain can also in a very small degree increase your inbound link popularity. And as it's really easy to find free hosting services, and it might help you, it won't hurt you try it.

HOW DOES A GATEWAY PAGE LOOK LIKE?

There is no one specific way to build a gateway page, but some ideas could be:

* The first thing you must know about them is that they are not supposed to be just a redirecting page, they usually do have some interesting content that might even rank well on search engines.

* All the links are keyword phrases

* The links some times take you directly to an URL, and others to named anchors on an URL, that are also keyword phrases (engines often consider links to named anchors more relevant).

* It should have the same look and feel as the rest of the site

HOW MANY GATEWAY PAGES SHOULD YOU HAVE?

The gateway pages will make your site easier to find, so you can create as many as you need, as long as they add good content to your main site. Remember that they look as your main site and they point towards its pages, so it must be as good written as your main site is if you don't want to damage your site's image.

Gateway pages are really useful because if you include too many keywords in your main site, you will dilute its main theme keyword density, and that will make you drop on search engine's ranking.

HOW TO MAKE A GATEWAY PAGE?

There are many people that offer special software or service to create gateway pages...

You can find free gateway creation places at:

* www dot manyhits dot com
* www dot katcom dot net/userpages/

And fee gateway creation places at:

* www dot signposter dot com/
* www dot iepromoter dot com/ds2000.html
* www dot cherryade dot net/

Note: Due to the dynamic nature of Internet, some of this sites might not work any more when you read this, but you can always look for "gateway pages" on your favorite browser.

If you rather use one of these services rather than writing your onw pages, make sure they build you authentic gateway pages and not doorway pages (many people think they are the same).

Finally, you have to upload the web pages you have created to your web server, and submit them to the search engines

MY ADVICE:

Search Engines are focusing more and more towards good Content Sites and in such places not all your pages need to rank well.

The most important value they are looking for is that your site must provide: GOOD ORIGINAL AND VALUABLE CONTENT

Your pages should not be created for the search engines, but must deliver excellent content to your visitors. And then you will please your visitors AND the Search Engines!

And you can do it while you put special emphasis for certain keywords, thus ranking well for them.

So my advice is:

CONCENTRATE ON FILLING YOUR SITE WITH GOOD CONTENT AND FORGET ABOUT RANKING TECHNIQUES
AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF RANKING BETTER THAN EVER!