The rise of single page websites has brought a debate among webmasters about their SEO friendliness. Here we take a deeper look at what these websites have to offer and what can be fixed about them and make single page websites SEO friendly.
Single page websites look appealing and could be created easily. In addition, their response is faster when compared to multiple page websites.
Websites with multiple pages take a long time to create and single page websites are preferred by businesses to promote their products. But the choice of single page website causes these businesses to miss out the chances to rank in the search engine rankings?
It is debatable, still, the fact is single pages websites have lower ranking capabilities as compared to larger websites.
Here we discuss the pros and cons of single page websites in the norms of search engine rankings and how to optimize the single page website better to get a massive traffic.
What are Single Page websites?
Single page websites are the websites with just one HTML page and various sections related to the website or a business like about, contact, products included on a single page.
A single page website is provided with a menu bar. The menu bar does not take the user to various pages related to his search but provides the required information on the page itself.
The links of the menu take the user to the required section on the page itself. There are loads of single page websites available on the internet.
But the best website pages need to possess some qualities. Before we discuss the pros and cons of single page websites, let us have a look at some of the best single page websites.
Hashtago
Scriptogr
Pros of Single Page Websites
1. Mobile-Friendliness
Mobile friendly nature is an important quality for SEO of a website. Mobile phones dominate the desktops in the recent years when it comes to the use of the internet.
Since single page websites are mobile-friendly, the business owners are switching to single page websites.
Because, they look appealing, respond faster, and provide a good user experience. Single page websites are intended to be mobile friendly. This is why most of the mobile applications have single page websites.
2. Creation and Maintenance Becomes Easier
Creating and maintaining a single-page website is easier whereas multiple page websites take days for designing.
There are a number of themes in the WordPress that facilitate the creation of single page websites within the fraction of the time by consuming less time and energy.
They can be created faster and their maintenance is easier when compared to multiple page websites. Also, SEO packages offered by firms to optimize these websites are cheaper.
3. Higher Domain Authority
Single page websites accomplish higher domain authority. It can be evaluated by the number of backlinks a particular website can gain or capable to generate.
The backlinks ratio will be higher in case of single page websites, that is, there will be 1:1 ratio of links to pages. This is an SEO advantage when it comes to single page websites.
4. The target audience can be identified easily
Single page websites can engage target audience easily and effectively. These are designed to target a specific group of audience in common.
Single page websites prevent users from getting confused about navigating to wrong links and pages as it happens in case of multiple page websites. Single page websites provide a better user experience as well.
Cons of single page websites
We know now why single page websites are a preferable option for businesses and product companies, but there are enough drawbacks as well to consider. Let’s have a look at factors that hamper the SERP rankings of these websites.
1. Lack of Depth
Single page websites often lack depth in the content. You may not afford proper space for the information you need to convey on a single page. This may hurt your SEO rankings as the visitors may shun your page for lack of more knowledge and depth in the content.
2. Keyword rankings
Single page websites may not support you to promote your business too well because you may have to compromise on the quality of keywords you use in your content due to lack of space.
You cannot aim for good rankings as you cannot use multiple keywords in your content on a single page website.How to optimize your single page website for better rankings?
You might have lack of space with single page websites and squeezing in more content is a problem, still, there’s scope to optimize such websites for higher SERP rankings.
Techniques you can stick to for Single Page Websites SEO
1. Use selective keywords
As the content in a single page website may lack depth, you should be selective in use of keywords. You need to use keyword research tools to determine the keywords you need to use to optimize your website better.
We recommend using Google’s Keyword Planner as it makes it easier to choose keywords to associate with your business for better SEO and ranking. And if you are looking for in-depth Analysis of other factors as well, Premium tools could be recommended
2. Multiple H1 tags on the page
Create H1 tags for each segment of your website. Generally, one page should contain only one H1 tag. But your single page website should be exempted from this stereotype.
3. Page speed optimization
Loading speed of a website is a crucial factor that decides the SEO rankings of a website. The optimization of your single page website gets difficult as you need to include multiple layouts and multiple components in a single HTML page.
Hence, your page loading time gets slower. This may cause a negative impact on your SEO rankings.
You can keep track of your website speed on a regular basis with the help of tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
Must Read: 17 Google Ranking Factors: Surprising SEMrush Case Study
Final Words – What’s the takeaway?
To conclude that single page websites are not good for SEO when compared to multiple page websites will be an overstatement.
But before you opt for a single page website, deep analysis of the targeted audience is important. This will help you to frame a strategy to optimize your website for better ranking.
Superb explanation in detail…great learning….Thanks
I have a single-page website. This article really loved me a lot for improving my website seo.
Thanks for this informative post, I loved the way you express feelings with words.
Hi Navin,
Great post with lot of in-depth information. I have a new website which is barely 8 months old. Your information in this post should be very helpful to run my website and work on it.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful post. Have a good day. 🙂
Hi Sajid,
Firstly Congrats on your new website sounds great. Glad to know you are taking away something from this post to boost your website SEO.
Have a great day!
Hi Navin,
Undoubtedly single page website optimization can be a hard job for beginners but things made easier with help of this amazing piece of writing.
Can you please explain how we can use multiple H1 tags on the single page for SEO purpose without facing any trouble like a penalty from search engines?
Hi Noman, yes single page SEO is Challenging. But. can be done, create the relevant sections for your targeted keyword, multiple H1 tags can be used by making sure only one H1 Tag per section, and more important there should be decent gaps between the H1’s
Hope this helps! have a great day!
I am doing keyword research. I am doing on-page optimization. What I have to do get more traffic ?
To rank a website and to get traffic out of it, you have to look at several factors apart from Proper keyword Research (low competitive), and On Page SEO. Like strong backlinks, UX and more. Check this guide might go handy for you. SEMRush Analyzed Google Ranking Factors
Hello Navin,
Awesome post bro. On page, SEO is very important to make your site more SEO friendly. One page website is definitely easing your SEO Job while a dynamic website needs a lot of work. But for me, the dynamic website works great and is more user-friendly. Thanks for sharing these great insights here.
With Regards,
Vishwajeet
Hi Vishwajeet, Glad you liked. Yes Whereas the SEO is concerned, a multi-page website is more considered, but at times there are many scenarios, where a webmaster has to go for with the One- page websites. For instance a service page, even product pages as well.
Thanks for coming by, Have a great day ahead!
Interesting debate Navin. Big fan of the WordPress blog bit for branding and SEO purposes – frequent fresh content – but go with the best option based on your business goals. I link to an eBook thru most comments to drive traffic and sales, and said page is similar to a single page site in its design.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
I agree, always good to go with the option which aims our needs. Whereas the personal branding is concerned, you are best in that. Yeah, I have seen your e-book is been appreciated by many influencers in the industry.
Have a great day ahead!
Interesting in theory, Navin. It’s exciting to see new ideas and theories about marketing online. I’m a proponent of the blogging strategies, and a single page site doesn’t really accommodate such intense communications, but I can definitely see a need for some sites to be less intense, less time consuming. I do have a few single page sites that do quite well.
Hi Jan,
Welcome to QuestionCage
yeah, few products and services do have one-page websites requirement. By the way, what strategies you follow for your single page websites? and how those are performing?
Have a great day ahead
Very beautifully written … to learn .thank you very much…We, readers, love to read articles like this.
Thank you Raj