One Page Websites vs standard structure Website

[PurpleHat]

I am wanting to get some input on this from the local search community. I have my opinion but what do you guys think about one page sites vs's the standard site build? Does it affect local marketing tactics, have you seen the one page sites rank just as well. The reason i am asking is because a client wants to move to a one page site (examples below), however, I don't know how it is going to affect the local marketing practices and ranking practices. Please let me know if any of you have had any experience with one page sites and if there are limitations or not please let me know!


ONE PAGE SITE EXAMPLES:

Video Hosting for Business

simplekey - Designed by ThemeVan

TeoThemes | Theme: Scrn


NASH - Responsive HTML5 One Page WordPress Theme Preview - ThemeForest


Novo


Sport & Fitness Theme for Gyms & Fitness clubs Preview - ThemeForest

 

[Big.Joe]

giving this a bump...i am also curious to see if any members here have any experience with one page sites.

Google ranks webpages not entire sites right? But it doesn't like to rank landing pages, so do one page sites look like landing pages in google eyes?

One page sites are becoming more popular, more great templates are coming out, and they are easy to setup and overall very friendly for the visitor.

Your thoughts?

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

My first thoughts are
1) wistia, the one website listed is not a local business website.
2) one page sites, I suspect, would require deep pockets and far more marketing than I think most local businesses have patience or budget for.

I don't have any experience marketing local businesses with one page sites, so I can't say it doesn't work. It's just not a strategy I'd try. Haven't ever seen a local business use one successfully, but I'm always open to discussion...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Google ranks webpages not entire sites right? But it doesn't like to rank landing pages, so do one page sites look like landing pages in google eyes?

Here are my thoughts though I don't have 1st hand experience and have never ever seen a one page local site that ranks. That's not to say they are not out there. But I look at sites and eval rankings ALL DAY LONG and I've never ever seen a one page local site.

Part of the local algo is based on trust signals. Location trust especially. I think Google for local likely wants to see about us pages and contact us pages and privacy policy pages and site maps and content pages. In other words if those things are the norm for other local businesses you compete with, I think Google is going to expect you to have those things as well. And I think even though Google ranks webpages, the algo is looking at the theme of the site and relevance based on the rest of the site as well.

I could go on and on but don't have time. Just feel strongly that a one page site is not a good idea for local for many many reasons.

 

[djbaxter]

Slightly off-topic, but it's also a bad idea for organic SEO too.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Actually David, that's totally on-topic since much of the local algo is based on organic ranking factors. Thanks for bringing it up!

 

[Cam]

It affects everything and is useless for being found in the search engines seeing how a back linking strategy is no longer worth while or recommended in any respect.

Most importantly, the public perception (potential customers) will be negatively affected which will do the most damage out of anything.

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

As Linda said "much of the local algo is based on organic ranking factors". I have a client, Digital Shock, that ranks first page for "game art outsourcing". The key is knowing how competitive the keyword you are trying to rank for is and what strategies you are going to use. In this case there are a ton of industry site that are very easy to get links from. But if your niche requires a lot of link bait content pages to get other people to link to you then you need a blog or static pages to post that content on.

My suggestion is to develop your content first. Your SEO strategy second. Then find a design that works with your content and SEO strategy. If you start with design you may find you run into limitations on your content and strategy.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Really good point Jamie - it's so easy to get caught up in the "looks" of a website and completely forget the substance(words) that actually is the thing that makes the difference between a pretty website and one that converts visitors into leads and/or customers.

 

[AwesomeDynamic]

Hi,

I saw your post on privacy policies. Is this a ranking factor for Google in your opinion? Are there more articles or other SEOs that you can link me to? Also, can the privacy policy be duplicate content as other pages online or do I need to rewrite it or can it simply be deindexed and Google just wants to see it present on the site for more trust?

Thanks!

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Hi Awesome

a privacy policy won't be a ranking factor directly, but it does have two hooks:
1) compliance with Google's TOS
2) impact on quality score - which is a ranking factor.

There isn't a problem with duplicate content on privacy pages - unless you steal someone else's' and they might understandably object. I use a service and recommend all my clients use the same because it makes life so much easier than maintaining your own.
I'm not interested in my privacy policy ranking, so I don't care that much of the content is the same as hundreds or thousands of other sites.

When it comes to the legal-ese type pages (privacy policy, terms of use, refund policy, etc), Google would be making allowances for those pages being very much like other sites.

Unless you have a really large site, I don't believe there's a need for page sculpting your privacy policy, but you can always mark it as no-follow.

No indexing it could be seen by the bots as the same as not being there, so I wouldn't recommend no-index.

As far as other SEO articles - the field is so wide and the people so varied, the question is like asking how long is a piece of string.

If you're looking for great Googler's to follow I recommend Gary Illyes and John Mueller. John does hangouts for webmasters - you can spend days catching up...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWf2ZlNsCGDS89VBF_awNvA

 

[DanLeibson]

We deal with this a lot as we have lots of clients that are funded startups and one page parralax scroll sites and dynamic one page web apps are so hot right now. It's definitely a struggle to be able to balance the greater marketing plan (which includes branding and other channels) with the SEO plan. So while we generally don't recommend site redesigns, we will recommend adding pages in a way to balance other business unit objectives with SEO.

Sorry I can't be more clear, but this is really a case by case thing.

Tl;dr the struggle is real.

 

[heckler]

1-page sites are great for paid ads

 

[AwesomeDynamic]

Thanks for all the great information on privacy policies! Are there any articles, resources, or other sources I can cross reference?