One page can be found for one thing

You can fix the rendering, buy the domain, submit the sitemap, write perfect titles, and still be found for nothing, because there is only one page and therefore only one search.

Run the free check

A page can be found for the subjects it covers, so a single-page app has one plausible search, which is almost always the most competitive phrasing in its category. The second page should answer a specific question somebody with the problem would ask before they know your product exists, which makes it a different door rather than a second version of the same one.

The arithmetic

This is the plainest idea in this entire section and the one most often skipped, because it is not technical and therefore does not feel like a task.

A search engine matches a search to a page based on what the page is about. Your app has one page, and that page is about your product. So there is one search that could plausibly bring somebody to you: the name of your category.

That phrasing is the single most contested search available in your field. It is held by companies with years of history and thousands of links. You are not going to take it this year, and it would not be the best use of your effort even if you could.

Meanwhile the person who needs your product is searching for something else entirely.

What people actually search

Somebody with a problem does not know what the solution is called. They cannot search for your category, because they do not know the category exists.

So they describe the situation, in their own words, usually as a question. What do I do when, how do I stop, why does this keep happening, is there a way to.

Each of those is a search you could be found for, and each one requires a page about that question rather than a page about your product. This is the whole idea: your product page answers a question that only people who already know you would ask.

The second page exists to catch somebody earlier, at the moment they have the problem and not yet the vocabulary.

Choosing what the second page should be

Not a features page, not an about page, and not a pricing page. Those serve people who already arrived.

Pick the single question your product answers that somebody would search before they had heard of you. If you have talked to any users at all, it is usually the thing they said when explaining why they went looking.

If you have not talked to users, go and read the communities where your users are and write down the phrasing people use when describing the problem. That is your page, and using their words rather than yours is most of the work.

One useful test for the topic: could this page be genuinely useful to somebody who never becomes a customer? If yes, it is a good page. If it is only useful as a route to buying something, it is a sales page wearing a disguise and it will not be found or shared.

What the page has to do

Answer the question completely, near the top, in plain language, and do not hold anything back for the product.

The instinct is to explain half of it and then say the rest requires the tool. This fails twice: the reader leaves unsatisfied and does not return, and the page is a weak source for anything reading it programmatically because it does not actually answer the question it claims to.

Give away the answer. Genuinely. Then mention, once, near the end, that your product does this for you if the manual version is tedious. A reader who got real help is far more likely to try it than one who hit a wall.

This is also what makes the page citable. A page that answers a question fully is a good source. A page that gestures at an answer and asks for a signup is not.

Then keep going

The second page is the structural change. The habit is what produces results.

One page a week, from a running list of questions, sustained. In six months that is twenty-five doors where you previously had one, each one findable, each one still there next year.

Keep a list of questions and add to it whenever you see one asked in the wild. The list is what makes the weekly page achievable, because starting from a blank screen is what turns a scheduled two hours into a skipped week.

The first few pages will do very little and that is the normal shape of this. The change tends to come somewhere around the twentieth, when you have covered enough of one subject to be treated as a source on it rather than as a single page about it.

Linking them together

One small technical point, since these pages need to be reachable.

Every new page needs a link to it from somewhere a crawler will find, which usually means your navigation or an index page listing them. A page nothing links to is a page that has to be discovered through the sitemap alone, and it is the kind of page that sits undiscovered for months.

Link them to each other as well, where the connection is genuine. A reader who found one question useful is likely to want the neighbouring one, and the links make the shape of the subject legible to anything reading your site.

And add each new page to the sitemap, which is the argument for generating the sitemap rather than maintaining it by hand as soon as you have more than a handful.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of The fixes. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Why does a one-page website get no traffic?
Because a page can be found for the subjects it covers, so one page means one plausible search, and that search is the name of your category. Category terms are the most contested phrasing in any field, held by companies with years of history, and they are not winnable by a new product.
What should my second page be about?
The single question your product answers that somebody would search before they had heard of you, written in the words they would use. Not features, about or pricing, since those serve people who have already arrived rather than bringing anybody new.
Should I give away the answer or save it for the product?
Give it away completely. Holding back fails twice: the reader leaves unsatisfied and does not return, and the page becomes a weak source for anything reading it because it does not answer the question it claims to. Mention the product once, near the end.
How do I know if a page topic is any good?
Ask whether the page would be genuinely useful to somebody who never becomes a customer. If yes, it is a good page. If it is only useful as a route to buying something, it is a sales page in disguise and will not be found or shared.
How many pages do I need before anything happens?
The first few do very little, and the change tends to come around the twentieth, when you have covered enough of a subject to be treated as a source on it rather than a single page about it. One page a week reaches that point in roughly five months.
Do new pages need to be linked from somewhere?
Yes. A page nothing links to has to be discovered through the sitemap alone and often sits undiscovered for months. Link it from your navigation or an index page, link related pages to each other, and add each one to the sitemap.

Find out how many doors you currently have

The free Get Found Check reports how many of your pages are indexable and what each one could be found for.

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