> If I think of a a lot of things my users would search for and try to create valuable information for them concerning those queries... is that great content or are those doorway pages?
Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages
that clearly and accurately describe your content.
Think about the words users would type to find your pages,
and make sure that your site actually includes those words
within it.
Doorway pages are typically large sets of poor-quality
pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword
or phrase.
Some examples of doorways include:
Having multiple domain names targeted at specific regions
or cities that funnel users to one page
Templated pages made solely for affiliate linking
Multiple pages on your site with similar content designed
to rank for specific queries like city or state names
>If when someone writes a nice article with a link to my site I give them a a few months of my service for free... is that good customer service or a link scheme?
Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable
explaining what you've done to a website that competes
with you, or to a Google employee. Another useful test is
to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if
search engines didn't exist?"
Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's
ranking in Google search results may be considered part of
a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster
Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates
links to your site or outgoing links from your site.
Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns
with keyword-rich anchor text links can negatively impact
a site's ranking in search results.
The best way to get other sites to create high-quality,
relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant
content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet
community.
Effectively promoting your new content will lead to
faster discovery by those who are interested in the same
subject. Avoid: attempting to promote each new, small
piece of content you create; go for big, interesting
items. Avoid: involving your site in schemes where your
content is artificially promoted to the top of these
services. Avoid: spamming link requests out to all sites
related to your topic area. Avoid: purchasing links from
another site with the aim of getting PageRank instead of
traffic.
> If I create a press release on PR Web and link to my service with an appropriate keyword ... is that participating in a link scheme?
Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press
releases distributed on other sites can negatively impact
a site's ranking in search results.
Note: I wouldn't expect links from press release web
sites to benefit your rankings, however.