
The one-page wonder - danw
http://www.dech.co.uk/2008/05/the-one-page-wonder/
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noelchurchill
There definitely can be some negative SEO effects of fitting all your content
on one page. If you want your page to rank well in Google, the keyword density
should be 3-5%, and the title tag keyword density should be as high as
possible for the specific term you want to page to rank for.

If all of the content is squeezed into one page, like the example, the page
won't rank well for anything (baring off page optimization).

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ozanonay
Absolutely. Furthermore, you're going to give yourself a huge bounce-rate if -
like the dentist example - you have a single page with no external links.

Google keeps track of how many times users click 'back' from a search result
to a search page. Needless to say it's going lower the subsequent rankings
that the dentist page receives.

Decreasing the number of pages through clever AJAX use can improve user
experience. But it still makes sense to have different chunks of content on
different pages, linked together. The SEO implications are a reflection of
this.

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briansmith
SEO should never be the reason to ruin a site's navigation. No dentist can
bank on being the #1 search for "Dentist" on Google. The dentist's website
optimization should concentrate on having accurate information in local
directories (online and printed phone books, Citysearch, Yelp, etc.) and
encouraging satisfied patients to provide positive online and in-person
reviews/referrals. Google Adwords and Yahoo's equivalent would be good
investments too, using "<City Name> dentist" as keywords.

One of the commenters made a good point that he had to navigate too much to
see the phone number. IMO, the phone number, address, and a link to a map
should be on the screen at all times (using CSS fixed positioning).

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noelchurchill
True, don't ruin your site navigation for the sake of SEO. Good thing its very
easy to create a very appealing website that also can rank well in Google.

Having accurate information in local directories would be considered "off-
site" factors. Off-site factors are very very important, but does not negate
the importance of proper on-page SEO.

And yes, for a website like the example, I think the contact info should
always be very easy to find near the top of the page.

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tom
While a one pager will work for some very, very small sites, there a
compelling reasons not to do this. People have been trained to look for
navigation cues such as Contact Us, About Us, What's New, and Home. These are
standard becasuse they work, are easy to understand, and give the user LESS
content to sift through. The example site is really missing the boat usability
wise. Also, it doesn't feel right to NOT have the standard navigational
options. It leaves me, the user wondering what I am missing.

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JacobAldridge
Dech's disclaimer at the beginning ("can get all of the information on one
page without compromising on usablity") is so restrictive as to be
tautological. It basically says "if it works on one page then it works on one
page".

From a business perspective, there are different reasons for having a website
(I tried categorising at [http://www.shirlawsonline.com/blogs/171-there-are-
only-four-...](http://www.shirlawsonline.com/blogs/171-there-are-only-four-
good-reasons-to-have-a-business-website)) and I would suggest only a small
subset of the simplest reason would fit into Dech's disclaimer - for the rest,
this would be painfully wrong advice.

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shawndrost
Navbars are probably the most widespread ui element on the web, and I can't
think of anything you could do (that isn't explicitly malicious) to confuse
casual users more than removing them. Even if that violated expectation
counted for nothing, I'd estimate that 30% of the dental site's users wouldn't
think to use the browser's find button. I would fire this man in an instant.

Even if we didn't have to contend with the habits and training that users
have, I doubt this would be better. Is he arguing that a navbar with links to
the appropriate sections is not worth the space it takes? If not, is he
arguing that the benefits of everything being on one page (more useful browser
find, I guess) outweighs the downsides (seo, users wading through mountains of
text, scrolling required to access navbar, etc)?

On the other hand, check out songza.com for some smart one-page web antics.

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Hates_
I absolutely hate long one page layouts. They scream "scam" any time I come
across one.

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delano
What else do you hate?

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aston
Underscore.

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iamdave
That actually made me chuckle. Nicely done.

~~~
delano
Tough crowd!

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breck
But often "less is more".

A page per section makes it easier to focus on that section. I think it has to
do with the unconscious processing of visual information.

Also, if the one page technique was superior I would expect it would have
become the dominant method on the web. Evidence suggests otherwise.

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Tichy
Some A/B-testing would be in order, though.

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Hexstream
The one-page strategy doesn't give you room to grow. I think that alone is
enough to reject that strategy in all but the most trivial of cases.

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hernan7
The example website is a site that basically replaces a paper-based flyer, so
having it be one page is OK.

I would have worked more or less the same as a 2- or 3-page site I think. With
only one page you don't have the lag associated with page load every time you
want to see a different section of the site.

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delano
It's a print page for an entire, small-sized website or possibly a summary
page for a medium-sized website. It's not a new concept but I would like to
see it applied more often. Anything worth doing is worth summarizing.

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poppysan
unless the navigation scrolls the page, this is a horrible idea. I agree that
if you can fit all of your info on one page, it should be done, but the
example was 5-6 pages long. I wouldnt scroll down that far.

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bprater
It's certainly worth a discussion on the merits of a one-page design. Often, I
flounder through a site trying to find a specific piece of information and
just wish they would put it on a single webpage.

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jupiter
You can print all with one click.

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josefresco
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should"

...goes both ways.

