Can SPA (single page architecture) websites be SEO friendly?
-
What is the latest consensus on SPA web design architecture and SEO friendliness?
By SPA, I mean rather than each page having its own unique URL, instead each page would have an anchor added to a single URL. For example:- Before SPA: website.com/home/green.html
- After SPA: website.com/home.html#green (rendering a new page using AJAX)
It would seem that Google may have trouble differentiating pages with unique anchors vs unique URLs, but have they adapted to this style of architecture yet? Are there any best practices around this?
Some developers are moving to SPA as the state of the art in architecture (e.g., see this thread: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Google-crawling-websites-built-using-121615.S.219120193), and yet there may be a conflict between SPA and SEO.
Any thoughts or black and white answers?
Thanks.
-
There's no single answer here, however the general consensus is that it really depends on several factors:
- Most pages can only truly be optimized for a couple high value phrases. So if you have too many phrases you want that single page to rank for, that's a tall order.
- If you go too divergent in a single page's topical focus, that makes more of a mess due to topical dilution - weakening the primary phrase focus for that page.
- If you force users to scroll forever (not just due to HTML5 / fluid design) that can be frustrating for readers on several levels. That's made worse by the fact that most sites that use a one-page design tend to be one-hit-wonder magic-product sales pitch type sites, and thus reputation is an issue due to association with those for some visitors.
- That's just a few of the reasons one-page design is not highly recommended, both from an SEO and a User Experience perspective.
- As far as Google being able to figure out hashtag referenced content - just like every other thing their algorithms attempt to figure out, my recommendations to clients always state "don't rely on that - algorithms are inherently flawed to one degree or another - so figuring out JavaScript, AJAX, Flash - it's a crap-shoot. Google needs multiple signals to help it figure out topical focus. With only one URL, you lose the page TItle, URL, H1 and other related signals that only work best when there's one of each of those for separate main topics. Sure, with HTML5 you are "allowed" to have multiple H1 tags on a page. Yet I've seen that confuse Google's algorithms. It's just not wise to tempt the "formulaic attempt" process.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will I loose from SEO if I rename my urls to be more keyword friendly?
As a good practice of SEO is to have your keywords in the links. I am thinking of doing some optimization and change my urls to more effective keywords. I am using shopify and there is an option (a tick) that you can check while changing the url (ex. for a category, for a product, for a blog post). This will give a redirection to the old post to the new. Is it good practice? Is it risky for losing SEO or it will help to rank higher because I will have better keywords in my links?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Spiros.im0 -
How come a page can rank in top 10 for medium difficult keyword, with poor link profile.
Hi Moz Community, The keyword that http://customsigncenter.com/ is ranking for is "custom sign", the keyword difficulty is 38 (according to Moz Keyword Explorer). Here are the link metrics for the page and domain: Page authority: 27 Domain authority: 18 Facebook shares: 50 Linking RDs to the page: 7 Linking RDs to the Root Domain: 8 From the SERP, a lot of its competitors have better link profile than this guy. How come the page http://customsigncenter.com/ can rank 6th for the keyword "custom sign". Are there any important "hidden factors" behind the scene? Thank you for any help and support. Best, Raymond
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | raymondlii1 -
SEO website migration gone wrong - noticed too late?
I have just been contacted by a company whose website has lost nearly all of its traffic. The web developers appeared to know nothing about the SEO aspects, when it came to migrating the website (this website change took place first week of August) - the traffic has gone from 7,000 sessions to 200 sessions a month. I can work through the usual SEO migration steps to help recover performance, yet normally I get employed on this kind of project as soon as the traffic loss is noticed... this time the traffic loss kicked in nearly 2 months ago - what are the implications of such a time lag re: SEO recovery?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
One of my Friend's website Domain Authority is Reducing? What could be the reason?
Hello Guys, One of my friend's website domain authority is decreasing since they have moved their domain from HTTP to https.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Max_
There is another problem that his blog is on subfolder with HTTP.
So, can you guys please tell me how to fix this issue and also it's losing some of the rankings like 2-5 positions down. Here is website URL: myfitfuel.in/
here is the blog URL: myfitfuel.in/mffblog/0 -
Links / Top Pages by Page Authority ==> pages shouldnt be there
I checked my site links and top pages by page authority. What i have found i dont understand, because the first 5-10 pages did not exist!! Should know that we launched a new site and rebuilt the static pages so there are a lot of new pages, and of course we deleted some old ones. I refreshed the sitemap.xml (these pages are not in there) and upload it in GWT. Why those old pages appear under the links menu at top pages by page authority?? How can i get rid off them? thx, Endre
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Neckermann0 -
Client rebranded with a new website but can't migrate now defunct franchise website to new website.
Hi everyone, My client is a chain of franchised restaurants with a local domain website named after the franchise. The franchise exited the market while the client stayed and built its own brand with a separate website. The franchise website (which is extremely popular) will be shut down soon but the client will not be able to redirect the franchise website to the new website for legal reasons. What can I do to ensure that we start ranking immediately for the franchise keyphrase as soon as the franchise website is shutdown. We currently have the new website and access to the old website (which we can't redirect) Thanks, T
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tarek_Lel0 -
My website has dropped in the rankings drastically. How can I get it back up the SERPs?
I manage a website that I took over 6 months ago - the site was sitting happily on page one of google so I haven't had to do much to keep it there - other than a few onsite improvements. However, last week the site dropped off the SERPs. The site is http://www.pro-techairconditioning.co.uk/content/home.html Could someone please suggest reasons for this and ways to solve the problem? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SWD.Advertising0 -
Where can I find knowledgeable website developers that know about proper seo!?
I am running a large ecommerce fitness equipment store. It is on magento and there are lots of little issues with the site. Things like url strucutre, not enough text for google to read as far as menus and too many images etc. I am wanting to work with a company that totally understands what I need done to the site to fix it and make sure its in its absolute best shape for seo. I need a real consultant that can help me make changes to my site. I cannot seem to find someone when outsourcing to overseas like india and stuff. Does anyone know of anyone or a company I can contact? If you know of multiple please list. Thank you very much Jake
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PEnterprises0