Practice Area Pages Without Doorways: How Google's Rules Shape Your Site Structure

What Google means by doorways

Google's spam policies define doorway abuse as "when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries", leading users to intermediate pages that are not as useful as the final destination ^[1]. The examples Google gives include ^[1]:

• "Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page"
• "Generating pages to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of a site"
• "Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy"

The policy is about intent and usefulness, not about the number of pages. A firm with twelve genuinely different practice area pages is building a hierarchy. A firm with forty pages titled "Divorce Lawyer [Suburb]" with the suburb name swapped is building doorways.

The pattern to avoid

One version of the pattern looks like this: one good family law page, then dozens of copies such as "Family Lawyer Parramatta", "Family Lawyer Penrith" and "Family Lawyer Blacktown", each with the same text and a different place name, each linking to the same contact form. None tells the reader anything the main page did not. That is close to the first example in Google's list ^[1].

The same applies to phrase variants. Separate pages for "divorce lawyer", "divorce solicitor" and "divorce attorney" target "specific, similar search queries" and offer no extra value ^[1].

The structure that works

Practice areas: one page per kind of matter

Split topics where the reader's questions differ. In family law, separation, parenting arrangements, property settlement and family violence orders each raise different questions, so each deserves a page. Under property law, buying, selling, leasing and off-the-plan purchases each have their own process. Where two "topics" would have the same answers, they belong on one page.

Offices: one page per real office

Each office where lawyers meet clients can have a page with its address, hours, directions, building access, the people based there and the work handled there. That is useful, specific information. Google's Business Profile guidelines also expect a real location: a rented mailing address where the business does not operate, "also known as a virtual office", is not eligible for a Business Profile ^[2].

Areas you serve without an office

If the firm acts for clients across a region, say so plainly on the relevant practice area page or the contact page: "We act for clients across Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains, by phone, video or at our Parramatta office." One honest sentence does the job without creating doorway pages.

When a location page can be legitimate

A page about a particular place can be useful if its content genuinely differs: for example, a page explaining which registry or court handles matters from a region and what that means for timing, written with local knowledge. The test is whether a reader in that place learns something they would not learn on the main page.

Content quality tests

Before publishing any new page, ask:

1. Would this page exist if search engines did not?
2. Does it answer questions the existing pages do not?
3. If the place name or keyword were removed, would it be a different page from its siblings?
4. Can a reader reach it through normal navigation, not only through search?

If the answer to any of these is no, merge it into an existing page or leave it unwritten.

Business names and keyword stuffing

The same thinking applies to Business Profiles. Google's guidelines say including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and warn that it could lead to suspension ^[2]. "Citizen and Co Lawyers" is a business name; "Citizen and Co Lawyers Best Family Lawyer Parramatta" is not.

Advertising rules still apply

Every one of these pages is advertising under Rule 36, so the claims on a location or practice area page must not be false, misleading or deceptive ^[3]. Implying a local office where the firm has none is the kind of impression the rule is designed to prevent.

Fixing an existing doorway problem

1. List every location and variant page with the number of search clicks it receives (Google Search Console shows this).
2. Merge the useful content from near-duplicates into the main practice area or office page.
3. Permanently redirect each retired page to the most relevant remaining page, so links and bookmarks still work.
4. Update internal links and the XML sitemap.
5. Keep any location page that has genuinely distinct, useful content, and improve it.

If the clean-up is part of a larger rebuild, our website redesign process includes the redirect map and post-launch checks.