Do I need an about us page for a 1 PAGE website?

[Erin Heiner]

I want to make a one page website for converting clicks into customers for affiliates or email gathering. I also want to get all of the traffic organically.

So if I put up a great big 2000+ word quality article, Will it rank the same with or without an about us, terms of service, privacy policy, contact us, and all those other basic pages?

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

Why not make those pages, link them to the main page but don't have the links prominent?

That way you have the pages but they won't take away from your lander and linking them to the main page will be appreciated by Google.

You are looking at like an hours worth of work tops to do that.

 

[Erin Heiner]

Why not make those pages, link them to the main page but don't have the links prominent?

That way you have the pages but they won't take away from your lander and linking them to the main page will be appreciated by Google.

You are looking at like an hours worth of work tops to do that.

First, thanks for the answer.

Actually, the work is the problem. Lets say a minimum of 300 words per page which is not what goes into high ranking quality pages. 300 words of unduplicated content x 4. And normal info pages are are far more then 300 words. I would say 4 hours of work minimum. That's how long it takes to write the One page Website. Ive just doubled my work load...

You said google will appreciate it. Are you saying having the pages will improve the google ranking? if so, are you guessing?

You brought up another question. What if I do write the pages, And they are all thin content. Will that decrease my ONE page website rank? as in like I shouldn't have bothered.

Does google average the amount of words on each page as a factor for determine DA or Rank? If i go one page I have a website with an average of 2000 words per page. If I go 5 pages, thats (2000+300+300+300+300)/5 = 640 avg per page

 

[Stavro]

Actually, the work is the problem. Lets say a minimum of 300 words per page which is not what goes into high ranking quality pages. 300 words of unduplicated content x 4. And normal info pages are are far more then 300 words. I would say 4 hours of work minimum. That's how long it takes to write the One page Website. Ive just doubled my work load...

Google doesn't care if your privacy policy has duplicate content, they only care that the pages exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-wkEeOKxM
https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

Actually, the work is the problem. Lets say a minimum of 300 words per page which is not what goes into high ranking quality pages. 300 words of unduplicated content x 4. And normal info pages are are far more then 300 words. I would say 4 hours of work minimum. That's how long it takes to write the One page Website. Ive just doubled my work load...

You said google will appreciate it. Are you saying having the pages will improve the google ranking? if so, are you guessing?

You brought up another question. What if I do write the pages, And they are all thin content. Will that decrease my ONE page website rank? as in like I shouldn't have bothered.

Does google average the amount of words on each page as a factor for determine DA or Rank? If i go one page I have a website with an average of 2000 words per page. If I go 5 pages, thats (2000+300+300+300+300)/5 = 640 avg per page

The work is negligible in my opinion (an hour of my life is all it would take so just outsource it; you won't pay more than 40.00 for someone to do that and do it well.

As to it hurting your one page site; it's a one page site... you don't have much there to begin with so unless you have a domain that has some solid history and aged links to it, the one page is perfect on page SEO, low competition, your off site SEO is spectacular and you sprinkle it with fairy dust it is not going to do a heck of a whole lot as to ranking anyway.

If I'm throwing up a one page lander that has about 2K words on it I'll add the other pages as a matter of proper site mechanics and market it in places that don't require Google to love it unless I'm targeting a KW phrase that has low competition.

One page does not a Google friendly site make.

 

[BHSEONewb]

These are my two cents from a couple years of research and trial and error, they're by no means gospel.

I wouldn't worry too much about unique content for the TOS, Privacy, contact type pages. Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, etc. are all full of duplicate content since they all pull from the same sources for their "product" pages and they rank in the top 3 for most real estate searches.

I'm not aware of how much weight google give the page length, obviously the algorithm is a closely guarded secret, but I've seen discussions that "readability" is more of an important factor. The use of headings, breaking up the text into manageable paragraphs, use of images, etc. count towards that. It also helps make the content visually appealing so the bounce rate will be less and time on page will be higher.

The about, contact, privacy, etc. pages will have one main benefit... they will make your site look more legitimate to the consumer if you're trying to sell something. Legit companies are going to have those types of pages.

 

[jfsinel07]

There are some pros and cons to having a single page website.

Pros:
1. Much better mobile experience - given that it's lean, single page sites typically convert much easier to mobile, and users find them simple to navigate. It loads much faster.
2. Make it Easy to Target a Specific Audience - all your messaging and your selling points can be laid out in 1 page all at once. But, you’ll want to keep in mind though that because users have to scroll through everything in order to find what they’re looking for, they could easily get turned off if presented with information they don’t find valuable.

Cons:
1. Limited to Keyword Targeting - you'll have limitation in terms of ranking for a wide variety of keywords.
2. Squeeze All Info to 1 Page - since you'll have limited space, you don’t have the luxury of devoting a separate page for each topic you want to cover. Even if your layout is exceptional, visitors still might end up disappointed with the lack of relevant content.

When determining whether your site should be single or multi-page, you need to consider the goals for your business and what you’re trying to accomplish with your website.