A website’s multiple pages are launched as part of almost every SEO strategy. This is the best course of action in the majority of cases, but is it possible to manage an SEO campaign effectively with one page website?
This article will explain what a single page site is, discuss whether or not it helps with search engine optimisation, and go over some of the best SEO strategies for one page websites.
Table of Contents (Single Page Website SEO)
What is a single-page website?
A single page makes up a single page site. It is often made with a long-scrolling layout and targeted towards a certain CTA. Another word for it that you might hear is “one page website
,” which has a marginally different user experience and functionality.
One HTML page usually contains a static, self-contained one page website No navigational links are pointing to other areas of the page. A single, continuous layout contains all of the functionality, graphics, and information. Users will feel as though the page’s content is cohesive and well-integrated because of the seamless scrolling experience created by this design.
Conversely, one page websites make use of anchor links and dynamic content loading. In response to user inputs, they dynamically retrieve and present content from the server, eliminating the need for a complete page reload.
What purposes can a single-page website serve?
One-page websites typically resemble landing pages that are focused on a single product. A single-page website is ideal if you don’t require multiple pages and you don’t intend to have a blog.
Some businesses build websites only to gain online visibility. Another well-liked type of single-page website is a portfolio. Putting all of your contact details and most importantly projects on one page will help with distribution through various channels.
Websites can be made by businesses to draw in prospective workers. For this reason, one useful page will be enough.
Examples of Single-Page And One-Page Websites
Let’s examine a few instances of this type of website design in action.
A Single-Page Application Website
An example of a one-page app website is Momentum. Customers can concentrate solely on downloading the software because of the flawless user experience. You can easily rank your single page website on local searches.
A Single-Page E-Commerce Website
One excellent example of an e-commerce site using a one-page web design is Kukla Kit. By using the landing page to market the collection and focus on a single call to action—buy (download) now—online retailers can add a tonne of information on that product.
Event Website on a Single Page
You Must Love For Developers, Frontend is a nonprofit event. The thing I like best about this example is that subdomains hold information on previous events, but the key elements (about, scheduling, and contact) are all on one page.
single page site For A Niche
One solution offered by Figma caters to a certain group of consumers who want to convert their Figma designs to WordPress.
The elegant website controls the user’s path to conversion—asking for a quote—by using primary navigation to scroll people to the single-page portion of greatest interest.
Are single-page websites good for SEO?
Generally speaking, you should start your website with multiple pages. Websites with just one page restrict your ability to increase organic traffic.
These are the main objections I have to single-page websites when it comes to SEO.
Keyword targeting is compromised by a lack of content.
Being restricted to targeting a narrow range of keywords is one of the main problems with a single-page website.
While it is feasible to target many keywords with a single landing page, it is frequently more successful in search engine optimisation to target distinct keywords with different pages that have a specific focus.
Known as “keyword mapping,” this procedure maps keywords to specific landing sites according to Google’s interpretation of the phrase’s search intent.
The best method to determine the purpose of a keyword search is to conduct a manual search using the terms and observe what search results Google returns. You can likely rank well with just one page if Google ranks single-page websites in the top spots for your intended query.
However, based on my observations, Google favours information that is extremely relevant to the search query when ranking results. You will lessen the overall relevancy of that page even if you target multiple focused keywords with distinct content passages on the same page. It would be considerably better to divide this content into highly targeted landing pages.
In Google’s eyes, developing a substantial body of material that is pertinent to your speciality also contributes to the development of authority and topical importance to your sector.
For instance, let’s imagine you want to buy contact lenses. To buy the lenses, visit Store A’s single product landing page. However, Store B features a product page, a “contact us” page, and several pertinent and educational blog entries that address frequently asked questions about contact lens eye care. Here, many factors are at work. However, you’ll be more inclined to trust Store B as a prospective consumer in general. In a similar vein, Google views a greater variety of reliable material as a sign of competence that increases topical relevance and association with your niche.
Lack of structure and organization leads to poor user experience
Websites that are one page in length frequently lack organisation and structure. When all the information is on one page, consumers frequently face confusion and frustration.
This is because a visitor of a single-page website can only move about it by scrolling over it and clicking on anchor links, assuming they are present. The user experience might get more annoying as more content is crammed onto a single page because it takes longer to find what they’re looking for.
A header navigation menu with breadcrumbs defines a clear structure of material on most multi-page websites. Users are accustomed to using these configurations. When set up properly, these also offer consumers a smooth experience so they may navigate between sites whenever they choose.
On single-page websites, content is frequently shortened to facilitate user navigation. This strategy does, however, have several disadvantages. You can remove content with SEO value and neglect to add information that users are searching for when you streamline your content.
Limited potential to acquire backlinks
Websites with just one page are frequently transactional and conversion-oriented. They usually contain only a small amount of informative content, including blog entries, research findings, or sites designed like campaigns.
As I noted in my first Ahrefs blog post, “Here’s Why You Should Prioritise Internal Linking,” webmasters usually link to informational content rather than transactional stuff.
You will therefore probably be sacrificing your capacity to develop high-quality backlinks if you choose to create a single-page website.
One of the three main SEO foundations is link building. Your ranking potential will be restricted if you launch a website with a structure that is not at all ideal for acquiring links.
A multi-page website allows you greater freedom to publish additional content that builds links on its own.
What are the SEO benefits of running a single-page website?
You might be asking yourself at this point why anyone would maintain a one-page website. You might be better off with a single-page website right now, even if I’ve given lots of reasons not to.
With the intention of eventually growing and scaling up their website, many webmasters may choose to operate a single-page website shortly. In this case, an MVP (minimum viable product) website works well as a placeholder.
They are also simple to put up and reasonably priced. Instead of designing, creating, and hosting multiple pages, you only need the resource once.
These are some clear-cut, non-SEO explanations for why one-page websites can be the best option for you. Additionally, there are certain SEO advantages.
They offer a fantastic foundation for brand launches.
If you are launching a new brand, you will probably be putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to get your full-featured website ready for launch.
Before a brand’s launch, a one-page website frequently serves as the ideal placeholder; you will probably move to the full website at that point. Establishing a single-page website guarantees that Google has crawled and indexed your website before the brand launch.
This lessens the chance that your website and brand will launch without being indexed by Google. This may have disastrous consequences for your website, as it might lose out on important hits on the day of your brand’s debut. Before a launch, having a single-page website in place enables you to get indexed and accumulate vital ranks for important branding terms.
PageRank is focused on a single-page
Generally speaking, creating backlinks to a one-page website is more challenging. That much is true. One benefit of having a single-page website, though, is that PageRank dilution is less likely to affect you.
Every backlink that is developed for your website will lead to the same URL. This means that instead of being diluted when authority is transferred through internal links, all PageRank that is developed towards your site is linked to a single page.
A gradually decreasing portion of the total value of the backlink is transmitted through internal links on multi-page websites when PageRank is transferred. This is referred regarded as the “PageRank Damping Factor,” because each “hop” caused the value to decrease.
They naturally offer a good experience to mobile users
Single-page websites also have the advantage of frequently being mobile-friendly by design. They’re frequently designed with mobile consumers in mind.
The more condensed and snappy language is in line with mobile optimisation best practices, and mobile users frequently find it easier to navigate via anchor links.
It’s more crucial than ever to guarantee that users of mobile devices enjoy a positive experience. Users on mobile devices account for the bulk of website visits globally, according to Statista.
Additionally, Google will primarily crawl your website on mobile devices and use mobile-friendliness as one of its ranking factors. Optimising for mobile is more critical than ever.
Tips for optimizing a single-page website
We’ve now discussed the benefits of having a single-page website in terms of SEO.
Here are my best SEO crucial tips for building and managing a single-page website, should you decide that’s the best option for you right now.
Use a clear hierarchy
As we previously mentioned, single-page websites frequently lack the obvious architecture that navigation menus and breadcrumbs provide. In light of this, you should establish a distinct on-page hierarchy for your quality content. A good place to start is with a sensible heading structure, with one H1 for the main heading and H2s and H3s for the subheadings.
It facilitates readers’ ability to scan and traverse the website when you utilise these header tags to break up your material in a sensible sequence. When navigating a page with a disorganised heading structure, the user is forced to comprehend the page layout.
It is also important for users who may use a screen reader and are blind or visually impaired to follow all heading levels.
Remember the importance of image optimisation.
In SEO, image optimisation is frequently disregarded. Image SEO is important since single-page websites frequently have a lot of graphics.
When it comes to single-page websites, there aren’t any additional guidelines to adhere to, so be sure to use best practices like:
• Using descriptive file names and alt text.
• Using next-generation file types and reducing the size of image files.
• Using a content delivery network (CDN) to load images.
Adhering to these recommended procedures will improve website speed performance in addition to supporting possible ranks through image search.
Never ignore page speed.
Nicely, this brings me to my next piece of advice: don’t overlook page speed. Make sure it loads quickly and is responsive because that is the only page your users will ever see.
Of course, when it comes to SEO priorities, page speed isn’t at the top of the list among the hundreds of ranking signals at work. It’s difficult to deny, nevertheless, that a quick and responsive website improves user experience in addition to organic results.
John Mueller defined Core Web Vitals as a “more than a tiebreaker” signal during a Reddit discussion about the platform.
According to Think with Google, if a mobile website takes longer than three seconds to load, 53% of visitors will leave. When we combine these ideas, we have a strong argument for maintaining page speed as a significant factor.
A primary aspect of single-page websites should be the lazy loading of relevant content below the fold. This is because you’ll probably be cramming more content than normal into a single page, which will slow down page loads.
This implies that the first-page load will be delayed for any resources that require the user to scroll to view them. Rather, the user will scroll to load these resources.
Increase your efforts in building links.
As previously discussed in the article, single-page websites have a difficult time attracting backlinks organically. In light of this, you’ll probably need to invest considerably more time than usual in link development.
You’ll have to focus more on tactics that don’t call for the development of new pages.
This is because you are unable to create pages specifically designed to draw links, for instance, by employing techniques like link baiting.
Offering knowledgeable remarks or quotes for external websites is a fantastic method to increase link building without having to create new pages.
The procedure is really easy to follow:
• A journalist requests an opinion from an expert.
• You offer to make a statement.
• If it works, the journalist incorporates your feedback into their article.
There’s no assurance the reporter will genuinely attach a backlink to the commentary. Nevertheless, there’s a good possibility the reporter will provide a link to give the donor credit. The backlinks will increase in tandem with the expert remarks as you begin to accumulate them.
Twitter is an excellent place to start when looking for requests for expert commentary from journalists. Journalists frequently use #journorequest, which makes it simple to use a custom search to locate pertinent requests.
Journalists will also use a variety of third-party systems, like HARO, to submit these kinds of requests.
Locating brand mentions that are not connected is another excellent backlink development tactic that eliminates the requirement for new content creation.
An online mention (citation) of your brand name or even a prominent corporate spokesperson that lacks a backlink from the publisher is known as an unlinked brand mention.
Observe standard practices for on-page
Probably the most important tip I have is the last one, which is also the most straightforward. It’s imperative to adhere to on-page SEO best practices.
Because of the limitations of having only one page, you will have to give up things like internal linking.
Nevertheless, optimising important on-page components—such as meta titles, descriptions, and keyword targeting—remains crucial.
Last Words:
The SEO benefits of traditional multi-page websites outweigh those of single-page websites. However, that does not imply that single-page designs are never appropriate or appropriate.
You should think about your business’s objectives and the things you hope to achieve with your website when deciding if it should be single- or multi-page.