Beacon, Doorway, or Gateway pages
REALITY: You might as well take your site down yourself. At least it’ll save the money you would’ve paid these guys to do the same thing.
Before we go into the details, read what their page actually says:
“A beacon page is a page of text linked to your site to improve your search engine
ranking. It is basically a page of text that mirrors keywords and descriptions
throughout your site. Many websites are created using frames and some search
engines have a hard time with these. A beacon page provides an inexpensive
solution to these challenges.”
What this firm is really offering you is the chance to be banned from Google.
How generous. Their 'Beacon Page' is just another term for what is known as a 'Doorway
Page' or a 'Gateway Page'.
Doorway Pages are pages separate from the rest of your site. They’re created to only be seen by search engine spiders. The pages are packed with keyphrases that the site wants to rank for. The text is often just pure nonsense with the keywords inserted over and over. A page that isn’t meant to be seen by people is hiding for a reason.
In short, they're not a natural part of a website. They exist only to boost rankings. Search Engines don't like them and they do penalize sites for it. Being banned from search engines is not unheard of. That’s a risk that no marketer should ever take with your business. No matter how good the upside looks.
The optimizer may refer to them as bridge, gateway, or entry pages. Whatever
they're called, it's unethical and it puts your business on the line. Avoid at all costs.
[NOTE: There are Entry or Landing Pages that are made for SE Ad campaigns. They’re
the webpage that a person is taken to when they click on your ad. Those are fine, but they
do have to be handled correctly.]