If the style will never be used on any other page, then there is nothing wrong with it being put on the page directly. Why else would this option be available if it wasn't acceptable? External style sheets are for common styles among all the sheets. If there are one or two isolated styles, most people will put them in the external, but if you have many pages with page specific styles, you might as well just put them with their specific page. The code and overhead is a wash. Probably looking at miliseconds difference, if any at all.