Bridge page
A bridge page is a thin page whose only job is to pass visitors on to somewhere else, usually through an affiliate link.
A bridge page is a page whose only job is to pass visitors on to another site. Someone lands on it, finds little of their own to read, and is nudged towards a button or link that takes them elsewhere. Affiliate marketers have used them to warm visitors up before sending them to a product they earn a commission on.
For a marketer, the question is whether the page adds anything. A page that only stands between a reader and a link gives search engines and AI platforms nothing to show.
Bridge pages and doorway pages
The two get mixed up. A doorway page is one of many near-identical pages, each built to rank for a slightly different search, all leading people to the same place. A bridge page is a single stop on the way out. One is about catching lots of searches, the other about handing traffic over.
Both can fall under Google's spam policies. Bridge pages usually sit under thin affiliation: affiliate pages that copy the merchant's descriptions and add no value of their own.
When a page in the middle is fine
Plenty of pages link out for a living. A review that tests three grinders and links to where you can buy each one is doing real work. The difference is what someone learns before they click.
For example, an affiliate site has a page called "Kestrel Roasters coffee" that repeats Kestrel's own product blurb and shows a large "Shop now" button. That's a bridge page. A page that compares Kestrel's beans with two others, with tasting notes and prices, is a review that happens to earn a commission.
Why it matters for AI answers
AI platforms quote the pages they read. A bridge page has nothing in it to quote, so it's rarely the source of an answer. If you run affiliate partnerships, the pages that will carry your name into AI answers are the ones with real comparisons, details and opinions.