One-pager: when the concept works and when SEO suffers
Which strengths One-Pager have, where boundaries for SEO arise and when a multi-level structure makes more sense.
The topic often only becomes relevant when technical details suddenly deteriorate rendering, delivery or display quality. Clean standards save a lot of effort here in the long term.
Which strengths One-Pager have, where boundaries for SEO arise and when a multi-level structure makes more sense. This wiki page arranges the topic practically and shows, When priority arises, which mistakes are often and how you derive concrete measures from them.
Example: Three services compete in one document
A one-pager covers web development, photography and seminars under a common URL. Check whether each target group reaches its section quickly and whether title and entry still convey a clear main task. Jump marks facilitate navigation, but do not create independent documents.
Own subpages are worthwhile if services have different search intentions and sufficiently independent content. For a close offer, on the other hand, a one-pager can be suitable. The decision follows the need for information, not a blanket minimum number of pages.
Design of a one-pager
In addition to text, the page can of course also contain pictures, videos and graphics. It makes sense to design them using an easy-to-use content management system so that any content can be added below. If it is used as a landing page, which is a main purpose of this design, the company in question can expand the content at any time when it increases its offers.
The page then gets longer and longer, but when called up, for example, with the smartphone, for which it is particularly suitable (due to the simple technology and thus the fast charging time), the user simply scrolls on. It is then advisable in web design to always mark individual topics or the sections by different colors, pictures or banners at the beginning and to provide them with jump marks from the table of contents, so that the user can reach them quickly. The design has some advantages:
- The simple technique of a single page consumes very little data and therefore (taking into account further technical details) can lead to lightning-fast loading. This is good for the user and the search engine optimization.
- Since a text runs from top to bottom on such a page, the reader can be controlled relatively well with a well-told story. He reads it from front to back. However, it should be noted that a link to another page (the company’s homepage or shop if the one-pager design is used for a landing page) only appears at the end of the text. This means that the user remains on the landing page in the one-pager design up to this point. The resulting dwell time is important for the information of the user and in turn for search engine optimization.
- Especially very logical content, which the user should really study from front to back, is best placed on such a page. A well-known example is product descriptions or declarations, which an interested party should capture from front to back without distraction.
- When a user captures the content from front to back (or from top to bottom), they are ready to click on a call-to-action button.
In any case, the text should be structured in one column so that it is well displayed on a smartphone.
One-pager and SEO
Apart from the fact that such a page cannot represent any more complex structures in terms of content and is therefore unsuitable as a homepage, it also has small adverse effects on SEO. Although the fast loading and the possible dwell time of the user is rewarded by the search engine, not many keywords can be accommodated in a text, which restricts the focus.
Secondly, the Google bots Under certain circumstances, they do not get along well on this page, because they are actually also looking for internal links to find the homepage or the imprint of a page. In any case, this is a common SEO hypothesis.
This is countered by the fact that the Google algorithms are of course based on billions and billions. Landing pages know the one-pager design and can probably also interpret it. However, it can be assumed that such a page is technically only suitable for optimization on one to two keywords. This is always recommended for landing pages. Used in this way, the one-pager design has significantly more advantages than disadvantages.