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I'm not sure anyone has asked this but here goes.

I made a website where the goal is to sell tickets.

The pages are as follows:

The main page that's loaded contains the event name, location basic description (about 200-300 words), and links to the next pages as follows:

One Page has a list of frequently asked questions with answers (about 200 words)

Another section processes one payment option (maybe 40 words) and has embedded javascript for the processor to function.

To save requests to the server, I converted the above so instead of having separate pages, I embedded the content into hidden boxes (div tags) that show up when the user clicks on the correct link. I also made a fallback where if a link (that activates a hidden box) is clicked and the user doesn't have javascript, it would load a separate page that would tell the user another way to buy tickets.

I'm starting to wonder if this idea of combining the sections together for a total of over 600 words is a bad idea for SEO purposes compared to having each section as a separate page. If I do separate pages, then I might qualify for "thin content" which is also bad for SEO. I did hear google can read javascript and I deliberately avoided the button tag because a source claims google can't click those.

So which is better for SEO?

Me combining all pages (roughly 200 words each) into one long page where most information is hidden until the user clicks on a button to replace the visible information with the requested information,

OR

Having separate links for each piece of information?

and why?

1 Answer 1

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Most modern search engines use natural language processing, (NLP), to determine user or search intent. Looking at new pages to be added to the index through the lens of what is working with the pages it already has seen and indexed.

Some exceptions to NLP based search may be yep.com which appears to be domain authority-based or duckduckgo, which uses information from modern search engines that use NLP.

Working means a visitor to the search finds the result and when selected does not bounce back and select a different site, or the user does not do a new search rejecting the first attempt as a failed search.

User intent for purchasing a ticket to an event.

There is a schema and rich search result snippet for events that contain the expected information a page should have to fulfill the user intent. Google experience is pages with this information satisfy the intent.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/event

Pages that have additional information, as long as it is relevant, are better than pages that don't. Google simply likes them and does not explain why, but one can speculate they believe it increases their user's satisfaction with Google search.

Who decides what is true and relevant?

The NLP creates entities and the people in the event are @person entities. The entity is a dataset-specific to them, in some cases for public personas they get a Knowledge Panel from the Open Graph data set.

John Lennon Knowledge Graph data set is /m/01vsl3_

https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/01vsl3_

The source of truth and relevancy are authority sites, I'm using yep.com as the tool for truth and relevancy since it is authority site based. You can find the knowledge panels and then the ... option to share and the URL leads to the kgmid page. The results in the kgmid should all be considered relevant and truth. But that level of research takes a whole of a lot of time.

For a @person the person themselves are an authority on themselves but Google can not verify the information unless they have a profile page on their site with the information.

Note: Places, or venues are also entities with Open Graph knowledge sets. As are types of music, food, cities, points of interest, these can aid in a topical cluster.

If the venue is the Taj Mahal, 200 words is beyond thin, the Government of India and tourist boards have that vector covered. Maybe they forgot about parking, for an event?

If the FAQ agrees with authority sources

When information presented on the page associated with the @person entity provides a gain of knowledge over other pages that are just doing the minimum Google experience is that page is better.

Additional information also gives more keyword combinations to improve impressions and your site's opportunity to show Google your site satisfies their users ... in turn, your site gets more impressions in the future.

Separate pages

Separate pages will need enough information to be able to rank, without the event. If that is the case, IE you are doing a small bio for the people who will have events. Then the page can be linked to as a gain of knowledge from the event page and Google has already evaluated it as relevant.

Using separate pages would be a topical cluster, and works, "if they are able to rank."

If separate pages are not ranking they are not helping.

Generally speaking, tickets are time-sensitive so there is a deadline, Putting the information onto the same page, although it makes it longer than others is less risky than separate pages.

Hidden or dynamic content

Google does not use words in hidden content for ranking, and dynamic content can look hidden. So mostly ignores it.

Unless the hidden content is something that is objectionable the initial indexing and ranking algos should ignore it. Google may consider ranking for terms in dynamic content if the site is in a top tier of the search results, IE Amazon, Ticketmaster, a top tier site has satisfied numerous search results and Google spends additional CPU resources looking at every word for these sites. Top tier sites are currently targets for parasite SEO because Google gives them more attention and better ranking opportunities.

If the dynamic content helps in satisfying the visitor, then the user interaction profile improves ... this profile is a site wide profile, the window for an event is not long enough to collect data and effect the initial offerings but future offerings will get the benefit.

Google does not care how your purchase system operates. They wont fill out the form and try to purchase a ticket ... they only care if the user returns to search and buys the ticket from somebody other than you. If they return later to your site and buy from you, you benefit. Both for the sale and for SEO.

Ranking against high domain authority sites

To get into the ranking with high authority sites you will likely need gain of information, on-page or topic cluster, (event schema can be used on multiple pages for the same event - the landing page for the schema must be a page on your site), either on-page or cluster works, so the more keyword combinations you can come up for the better if dealing with top tier competitors.

I think some ticket agencies have affiliated sites just so they can fill the search with all of the combinations. Saves them a lot of work.

Branded Search

If you can pull off a branded search for an event, Yoursite-name, or your-brand event-name. Google will consider your site more worthy for that topic cluster in non-branded search.

It is basically a navigational intent query, the same as when people started putting Reddit in front of searches now Reddit is showing up everywhere. The "brand" does not need to be an actual brand, just the term you are using for your events.

A website for the organizer, band, or even a fan site can outrank a top-tier site because of branded search.

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  • I should have mentioned that I already have implemented schema into the page in json-ld format.
    – mike_s
    Commented Jan 29 at 18:07

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