Dedicated landing pages vs responsive web design

[blackboxideas]

I've been doing some research into web design and page layout as my company is considering a re-design. However, we have come to an argument around responsive webdesign vs SEO.

The argument is around me (SEO specialist) arguing that I want dedicated pages for all my content as it's good for SEO since it focuses keywords and content properly, and it still adheres to good user journeys (providing it's done correctly), and my web designer arguing that mobile traffic is on the rise (which it is I know) so we should have more content under 1 URL and use responsive web design so that users can just scroll through content instead of having to keep be direct to different pages.

What do  I do...

I can't find any blogs, questions, or whiteboards that really touches on this topic, so can anyone advise me on whether I should:

1. Create dedicated landing pages for each bit of content which is good for SEO and taking users on a journey around my site

OR

2. All content that is relative to a landing page, put all under that one URL (e.g. "About us" may have info on the company, our team, our history, careers) and allow people to scroll down what could be a very long page on any device, but  may effect SEO as I can't focus keywords/content under one URL properly, so it may effect rankings.

Any advice SEO and user experience whizzes out there?

[jameswesleyhunt]

My agency's website is ranked #1 on Google for small business marketing in a major US city. We get a lot of search traffic, primarily on our home page and contact page. The home page features a couple paragraphs about our agency and a video. Of course there is some information in the footer. With that being said, our website and company has been very successful generating business without lengthy pages. Although I enjoy building long, informative home pages, I don't necessarily know that it guarantees better SEO results (as our company has been ranked #1 for a while with a very minimalistic setup).

This is just my own personal opinion, but I think it is generally better to give the user important (quality) information up front and try to reel them in from there. If they want to browse around your site and learn more then you've done your job. If you're really good then maybe they skip straight to the contact page and shoot you an email or call you.

I've ranked multiple websites #1 on Google for fairly competitive keywords in large cities. Very few of them were infinite scroll. With that being said I don't think there is anything wrong with that style of design (I make a lot of websites like that, too).

I think you should do what ever you think is more visually appealing and works with your content. I think depending on the situation either could work well. Best of luck!

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Viriginia. Here's a blog post discussing this as well and arguing for the design choice of combining the elements into one page: http://moz.com/blog/the-first-link-counts-rule-and-the-hash-sign. Note the result to her test, "The results were the same and now Google is showing the page for 3 different anchor texts. It means there's another exception of the "first link counts" rule and you can put multiple links on document A to document B and Google will count all of their anchor texts."  So I'd be a little less worried about having multiple pages per content piece and instead focus on the page style that delivers the best user experience, conversion rate, and content grouping.

Another thing you can look at to help you decide would be your current / past analytics. How many pages does your average visitor view per session? How much time do they spend on site?  If they're not visiting very many pages, going beyond that number might limit the exposure of those pages.  If you split test the multi-page design versus the single-page design you might find even better answers. Cheers!

[MonicaOConnor]

Yes. I see exactly what you mean. I think that you can do it the way that you want and still have the responsive design. I think that accordion style menus would help the user experience. That is how I shrunk the fly out menus on this site.

The content and the responsive design are very important parts of SEO. I don't think you have to change your content at all to make a responsive design work. I wouldn't change your content, I would just play around with the menu styles so that you can find the one that works best for your content on a mobile device.

[blackboxideas]

Yeah, the way you've done it with each bit of content under different URLs for the About us section e.g. /meet-the-team, /roof-chicago, /testimonials/ is my argument. You've done it the way I want to do it - creating dedicated landing pages for each bit about you, not just shoving it under one /about-us URL.

Here's our current About Us landing page, you'll see what I mean http://www.seriousideas.com/about-us/ - we have it broken down into lots of little bits which you can jump to if you didn't want to scroll --> Meet the team, our history, sectors, clients. I'm arguing that I wouldn't have all of those one URL, I would split them up like this:

/meet-the-team

/our-history

/sectors

/our-clients

But still use responsive web design on the site so that it is an easier experience for the user.

Do you see what I mean?

[MonicaOConnor]

I see what you are saying about duplicate content. What I was suggesting is keeping the pages the length you want them, while having a responsive design. There is no reason why you couldn't have multiple pages with shorter content on a responsive design. Maybe I am just not seeing the full picture.

This is a responsive design I created for a service site a few years ago. The content on the pages was designed to target key terms of course, but there are many pages for about us, the team, and what we do. Is this what you are looking to do?

[blackboxideas]

Aww I think I unfairly represented my web designers argument, I think he was more playing devils advocate than saying my way is wrong. But yes, your second comment RE: better UX was his point.

I see what you're saying, but I wouldn't do both... that could potentially lead to duplicate content and rubbish user journey if some pages are maahoosive and some point people to different areas of the site.

We don't sell products, we're a service based company (marketing agency). So all our content is around what services we offer, as well as having a blog and some research papers. But ultimately we're trying to promote our marketing services to help businesses connect with their audience better.

[MonicaOConnor]

After reading this again, I think i have to argue your designers point. I think what he is trying to say is that having more content on one page will optimally offer a better UX. This is because they won't have to click so many times to find exactly what they are looking for.

I see that point. What kind of site do you have? Is it strictly content or is it an Ecommerce site?

[MonicaOConnor]

I would say do them both. There is no reason to limit your landing pages in a responsive design. The purpose of a responsive design is to give the user the same experience on a mobile device and a desktop. It prevents losing functionality and information.

You might have to use some accordion function to hide some of the content in order to view products. If you have no products, then you will want as many pages as you can. The size of your site is important.

I am not sure why your designer is telling you that you can't have as many pages as you want and still have responsive design. Maybe it is time to get a new designer?