Can You Optimize One Page When The Rest Of The Site Sucks?

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar…

A prospect (or boss) tasks you with an important project: write one spectacular page that instantly grabs great Google positions.

That’s great, but…

What if the rest of the site isn’t optimized (or is poorly optimized?) Can your standout writing bust through the site’s limitations, despite the fact it may be the only well-optimized page on the site?

Or, to summarize: can you optimize one page and expect results when the rest of the site sucks?

Short answer: not really.

Google’s John Mueller was recently asked if site owners had to optimize their entire website to help one-page rank well.

Although the question makes me cringe a little inside, I understand why someone may ask. For some companies, it may make sense to push most of their resources into one incredible content asset — especially if the company is short on time and money.

Here’s why it’s hard for SEO writers to optimize one page and expect results

The problem with that single-minded focus is the other pages on the site get shortchanged. Basic optimization steps (like writing a keyphrase-rich Title) get overlooked. The whole site suffers from an SEO perspective.

There is so much focus on making one page successful that everything else is lost.

Which tanks the chances that your new, important page positions the way you want.

Plus, some site owners have a magical expectation that one good page will “make up” for the rest of the site.

You may have even read prospect pitches saying something like, “If your writing works, we may hire you to rewrite others.”

This sets you up for failure — especially if the client honestly believes that one page is all it takes.

Fortunately, we can finally point to some Google proof to show that a one-page optimization strategy isn’t the best.

During a Google Hangout, Mueller said,

“I would say if you care about one particular page on your website, then you should make sure make sure that the rest of the website that is associated with that one page is also improved as much as possible.”

Which makes sense. A site that does its internal linking and SEO content strategy right will have a better chance of positioning than one that’s not as tight and wired.

So, if it’s super-important for a page to position, make sure you build a strong SEO foundation across your associated site content. Write good Titles. Research keyphrases and include them in your copy. Even doing the bare minimum (for now) is helpful to give your “money” page the love it needs.

Otherwise, you may spend a lot of time and resources building out a page that won’t position the way you want.

And ain’t nobody has time for that.

What do you think?

How many times have YOU heard, “Ummm, yeah, if you could just tweak this one page…that would be great.” (And yes, that is an Office Space reference!) Leave a comment and share your story!