Doorway Page Dilemna...

Looking for some good feedback.

If a site is ranked highly for most competitive phrase in Google but its Home Page is Not Best in Terms of Conversions (its a flash doorway page), designed before conversion analytics was big thing..old site..and interior pages are product pages...and now its time to REDO Home Page to Make it Blend with rest of site and focus on conversions etc..


How would you go about making changes so that you don't lose rankings for your most competitive phrases?

I'm thinking out aloud here but would a 302 (temporary redirect) to interior page that it links to solve problem? I guess not becuase interior page which is seo optimized interms of internal linking, would have differeent density etc. Plus interior page isnt ranked on p1 like home page


Would adding additional content where it matches top ranking sites in terms of density, etc do the trick?

Would a 301/302 redirect work?

If none of above, what would you do IF YOU HAD TO, to ensure top rankings stay, but make home page seo optimized?



i.e. index.html (Doorway Page) which has some content but not best in terms of seo optimizination etc points to internal page home.html ( which is actual good looking internal linked seo optimized page). Index.html ranks highly in google However and need to make changes to that from conversion standpoint while maintaining ranking.

I think you are missusing the term 'doorway page' I think you mean 'landing page' a doorway page is a page on another site that redirects/directs to your main site. These are against SE TOS and not a good idea.

I think you just mean your home page is Flash... is this correct?

yes, my bad

Great opportunity here in my opinion. If you rank with flash, changing to a page with a lot of text and optimizing properly should improve rankings for your main terms, pull traffic for additional terms, and better pass deep spiderable links to many other parts of your site.

The biggest danger is that you might shoot yourself for not doing this sooner.

Thanks EGOL - I was thinking along the same lines. You confirmed my thoughts. Here's another idea I was toying around, change the flash home page and do a 302 redirect to interior seo optimized page it currently pointing to.

Doing a 302 temporary redirect would pass all the link juice/page reputation to interior page. But of course theres no gurantee it would do as planned. And if doesn't work as planned, remove 302 redirect.

So I guess first suggestions (yours) is probably more sounder and safer.

Any thoughts?

If you were to redirect, you'd be better off doing a 301 not a 302.

BUT don't do either. I suggest doing exactly as Egol mentioned. Use the landing page to direct your visitors through keyword-rich links in your new content. You're in a good position right now. Changing your opening flash page to have html content will only help you if you use relevant content (and avoid spammy text.)

Flash splash pages are a big SEO and conversions no no. You can use flash, but use it sparingly as components within your content.

A lot of people have these flash introductions and are missing out on a very important part of converting: getting your visitor as close to purchasing/converting as possible in the quickest timeframe.

I would not redirect anything. Optimize the homepage for your most important terms and load it with links to your deeper content. Increased rankings all around is my bet on what will happen.

thanks guys. its always best to go with safer strategy appreciate your feedback and time