Are Multiple-Page Sites Worthwhile?

Having lots of pages on a website does not automatically mean that it will receive a more favorable ranking from Google, said Matt Cutts yesterday. This will come as a blow to businesses that have invested a lot of time or money in expanding their sites, but it shouldn’t – there are still several reasons why having a site like this can be advantageous.

The first of these reasons is the opportunity it provides to make successful use of multiple keywords. Where a single page has lots of keywords it can run into two problems: looking unappealing to human readers and making those keywords stand out in the absence of meaningful content that justifies their existence and can lead search engines to decide the page is spam. Spread the keywords across multiple pages, however, and this ceases to be a problem. The smart way to approach it is by identifying target keywords, or key phrases, and building particular pages around them so they can be spaced out within high quality content that contains organic term search engines will already associate with them. This is also a useful approach for businesses selling multiple products or services that want each one to have distinct search appeal.

Links are also a major factor in making web design search engine-friendly. Having a lot of pages enables a site to link to a number of good resources without looking like a link farm, making a good impression on the search engines because it looks like a well-connected site and winning friends who can provide reciprocal links or other kinds of favors. What is more, having pages on a number of different topics that all relate back to the core focus of the business provides lots of opportunities for other people to link into it; indeed, specific pages can be created with this in mind.

Finally, there is content. As noted, good content is important in demonstrating that a site is not just spam. Content also has a direct function in helping to get the site ranked more highly. Running a blog is a good way to set up deep content, and running a news page helps with up-to-date content; however, the breadth of a site is still an important part of web design because it enables the site to show breadth of interest, making it look much more organic and natural.

For more advice on savvy web design, call Xcellimark.