Google Doorway Penatly

Question

Ok so i have been trying to figure this out for about a month now.

The case: I have a blog network with unique content on each post and at the end of each post each blog links to x1.com/unique-url-for-each-post before linking to x1 in the post i use a redirect with like this: theblog.com -> redirect-url.com/redirect.php?=x1.com/unique-url-for-each-post -> x1.com/unique-url-for-each-post

(all links at the bottom of the posts have no-follow)

For some strange reason about a month ago all blogs which i have done this on lost around 90% of their traffic.

Could this be the cause of the penalty? Is this type of linking considered as link farms by google?

All help and tips are greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Are you set up with Google's Webmaster Tools? Since you mention a doorway penalty by name, that's a warning it would specifically call out to you(eg. someone inquiring about it), which would give you a definitive answer a far as that potential cause.

Answer 2

I don't think the link at the bottom can be the only reason for the traffic loss.

The same redirection techniques is used in many places like in Joomla default banner tracking , whenever there is a Banner link joomla redirects it to banner component file then to the actual link.

Even Facebook uses the same method for external link , so this cannot be a issue.

How much is your SERP drop ? are you using unique content ?