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I maintain a magazine-like website. It is a one page site with no AJAX involved, ie. the whole content is loaded every time a user enters the site. Dynamic content loading is not an option for now.

I would like to utilize pushState to perform URL and page title changes each time a user navigates from one magazine page to another, so that search engines index each page of the magazine as a different webpage (with its own URL).

Would it be a problem for SEO to fully load the whole magazine no matter what page of it the user enters by? If so, could I prevent it by presenting the visible content somehow to tell search engines that the current magazine page is the relevant content?

I assume that rel="canonical" (or next / prev) will not help me, since it would reduce search results to an unique URL.

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  • No AJAX, but JavaScript hides and shows sections as the user navigates?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 9:29
  • I'm curious about how well this performs? I tend to like long reads that are fully downloaded on my mobile device. I find clicking between pages takes too long when I'm out on cell coverage. On the other hand, that seems like it could be bandwidth intensive. How big is the initial download? Do you plan to change how this works as you add to the site?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 9:33
  • @StephenOstermiller Yes, only the current magazine page (related to the current URL) is shown, even if all the other pages are loaded.
    – Rober
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 20:36
  • @StephenOstermiller Well... Issues of this magazine are not huge, so the initial loading takes a litlle more than it would if it was dinamically loaded, but then you can instantly go from any section to another. I know that dynamic content loading would be a better approach for this kind of site, but it is not at my hand.
    – Rober
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 20:40

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Loading the whole thing regardless of entry page would, I imagine, create a load speed problem. That will negatively impact user engagement (i.e. higher abandonment rates, etc.) and harm rankings in Google.

Using rel="prev" and rel="next" shouldn't "reduce search results to an unique URL", if I'm understanding you correctly.

According to Google, it should have the effect of consolidating signals (backlinks, etc.) for the whole series of pages, and help ensure searchers are served the most relevant page. That might often be the first page, but not necessarily: a search relating specifically to content on page 3 should still return page 3.

It's also recommended in Google's model for search-friendly infinite scrolling.

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  • I know it is not a good idea to load everything. Now it is a matter of doing the best I can regarding to SEO. Ok, thanks, I will take another look to prev/next. I want to tell Google what content relates specifically to each page of the series. Is it enough simply showing a part of the site and hiding others?
    – Rober
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 20:58
  • It depends what you mean by "hiding". Per the Google sources I linked to, whether you're showing individual pages of a sequence by normal pagination or infinite scroll, rel="prev" etc. takes care of unifying them as contiguous pieces of a whole. Bear in mind, though, if they're separate pieces of content shown in a one-page UX, it's not paginated content and rel="prev" etc. isn't required.
    – GDVS
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 21:06
  • Mmmmh... It is a magazine-like site, with no flip-page effect, but the pieces look like "pages" or sections. I can decide how the not active sections are hidden (simply outside of the view, display:none, visibility:hidden, opacity...). It is a one-page site if we talk about loading and URLs, but not from the point of view of the user experience.
    – Rober
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 21:42

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