You may have noticed that there are a lot more one page websites around. Long, scrolling, parallax images and with full width panels of content, the one page website has risen in popularity over the last year. 

But what does a one page website mean, for search engine optimisation?

Issues you could be faced with: 

Search engine algorithms seek relevancy; they match queries with content. While a single page site may improve relevancy for your primary keywords, it’s more likely you will dilute relevancy for sub-topics and terms that might rank easier on their own pages. For example, if you have a website that show cases four services, each service could have it's own page with it's own optimised keywords, data and content. On one page, these four services could blend and blur into one page, and be hard for the user to find what they were looking for.


When asked about SEO for one page websites, Google’s Matt Cutts said:

"It’s going to depend on what your particular area is, what the topic is, and what kind of layout you come out with. But if it works for you and for users to have that all on one page, for the most part, it should work for Google as well."

What tips are there for optimising a one page website?

Content: Making sure you have defined content sections is integral. Each section of content should be designed as if it were on it's own separate page, have the keywords, headline and alt tags all geared up as you normally would if it were a page of it's own.

Anchors: In search rankings, we’ve sometimes seen Google list anchor links as site links. Anchors will help people navigate your one page website without having to scroll up and down. Back to top links could also be a bonus, to save people struggling with navigation.

H1 Tags: It's not usual for us to suggest using multiple H1 tags on one page, but for a one page website, each section that signals distinct and separate content should have it's title in an H1 tag.

Updating your content regularly:  As always, refreshed content is a necessity, so you’ll have to be creative as to what you’ll change on your site, and how often. If you've got a one page website that has been created with how it looks in mind, this may be difficult in terms of updating the text and making sure it still fits in within your design. You'd need to keep this in mind and make sure it's flexible in layout.

Adding layers: In order to add refreshed content without touching your web page, you could add a blog and embed your active Social Media accounts.

When should you consider a one page website?

If you want your web page to act as a landing page, to tell people Who you are, what you do and where you're based, along with contact details, a one page website would suffice.

Here are some examples of one page websites we have created to give you an idea

Coombe Shower Services
Accentuate
G&H tyre services
Alva Solutions

When shouldn't you consider a one page website?

If you have a lot of content, and a lot of different services you want to show case, a one page website really isn't suitable. For example, if you are a dental practice with numerous services, booking information, terms and conditions, forms for new patients to fill in and more... a one page website would be impractical.

A one page website should really be used as a landing page, to boost your online presence alongside other tools such as a blog, a website (with more than one page) and/ or social media.

It completely depends on your business, your area of specialism and of course what you are looking to get out of your website.