Today’s Ask an SEO question comes from Tiffany in New York. She asks:
“From an SEO perspective, which one is better, single page vs. multi-page design? For instance, within a product page, shall the spec, support be separated to different tabs with distinct URLs under product page or shall they be combined to one page?”
Great question! Because I don’t know your specific situation or website, I’m going to respond in general.
The easy answer is a single page for the information.
This makes the content easier for Google to find and you have less to worry about I.T.-wise.
However, this answer also depends on your situation.
I have one client with thousands of product reviews on their pages for multiple products.
These reviews include images uploaded by customers and sometimes videos.
These reviews weigh the page down and when we paginate it destroys our crawl budget.
For them, I did recommend splitting things up and it worked.
But that was specific to their situation and is not right for everyone.
How to Determine Which Approach Is Right for You
One exercise you can do is list out the types of variants, folders, and alternate URLs you may need.
Now ask yourself why each variant does or does not deserve a unique URL, folder, or parameter.
Think about any inherent value to doing this. For instance:
- Does the product have a massive search volume for reviews? Then a review page is the best experience for the shopper.
- Is a dedicated URL, folder, or variant a better experience for the end-user? Think about a heavier search volume for a specific size, color, or material. These instances could include:
- Color variations.
- Sizes.
- Reviews.
- Specs.
- Comparisons.
The rule of thumb for me is if there is value in a unique experience and there is enough difference from the product page, then we can create the new URL.
If the product page itself is the best experience, then we keep it as a single URL.
If we do go with parameters, folders, and unique URLs, it is important to check your site structure and search engine signals. This includes your:
- Sitemap.
- Breadcrumbs.
- Navigation (main, sidebar, and footer).
- Canonical links.
- Internal links.
- Hreflang tags (if you have multiple languages).
You’ll also want to check Google’s search results and your account in Search Console for indexation bloat.
If all of these excess pages and variants start eating up your crawl budget you could have a big problem in your near future.
A single URL is normally better. There is less room for error and it is easier to maintain.
But that doesn’t always mean it is the only right way to do it.
I hope this helps!
Editor’s note: Ask an SEO is a weekly SEO advice column written by some of the industry’s top SEO experts, who have been hand-picked by Search Engine Journal. Got a question about SEO? Fill out our form. You might see your answer in the next #AskanSEO post!
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