In a recent meeting with a client, who came to talk to us about renovating his website, and after he mentioned that he didn't give much importance to it, it was suggested by the client to have a one-page website, since in his opinion it might be enough and, being just one page, he said, it would probably be cheaper.
The quick answer is that it probably won't be cheaper. Most of the time it will not be enough to conveniently communicate the different services of your company and, in terms of SEO, it also poses some difficulties…
Of course, if the website is seen, not as a tool to support the company's communication, but as something that is there (on the internet) just because my competitors also have a website, then none of these reasons is important, but let's go into detail. a little better our opinion.
Does a one page website imply less work and less investment?
This argument made more sense perhaps a decade ago, when the technical component of creating a website still carried a lot of weight. Although there were already solutions such as WordPress, or platforms such as Blogger, which allowed non-technical users to publish content on the internet autonomously, these solutions were not as simple, intuitive and even cheap as some of the current solutions, whether the version hosted from WordPress.com, Wix, or others.
Creating a website is no longer a technical problem (in most cases), since essentially that part is resolved. At the moment the main question will perhaps be the contents, namely knowing what we want to communicate on the site and what message, texts and images we are going to put. Assuming that the content we wanted to communicate was substantially the same on a traditional site or on a one-page site, we can thus see that the value to be invested will also be approximately the same.
How did the one-page website fashion come about?
As trends in web design they vary over the years and this idea of a one-page website is something that, like most fads, has already been in rage, then it was criticized and now it seems to have found its space, which I will talk about later.
The main driver of the site on a page may have been the increase in the use of mobile devices (cell phones, tablets, etc.) to access the internet, since with this type of device we are more predisposed to scrolling than on a traditional computer.
In other words, we are less inclined to jump between pages, not least because just a few years ago this took a long time, and we are more receptive to walking up and down the page that we already have open on our mobile.
This also overturned an idea that prevailed in the development of websites and which advocated that the content should be all, or at least the most relevant content, visible when we enter the site. It was the concept ofAbove the fold”, which, however, in research carried out, has been shown to have much less strength today.
Difficulties in a one-page site
The art of synthesizing ideas is perhaps one of the most difficult to master and on a one page website that's what we have to do. By reducing the amount of text we write to describe our area of expertise, our products or services, what sets us apart, we are also reducing our exposure to search engines.
So we're giving Google, or another search engine, less content to index us. and, therefore, we also reduce the probability of being in a good position in those words that we consider to define us.
If we think not of the search engines, but of the people who are on the site, the question also arises, which is, am I giving my potential customers all the information they need to convince them to contact me?
Of course these issues can be mitigated by using some additional techniques in terms of SEO or Google Analytics configuration, but if the objective was to reduce costs, then what we see is that maybe they will increase…
When to use a one page website
The one-page website allows for a very strong focus on communication, as the space constraint forces you to address fewer topics, and to do it more superficially, than on a traditional website. However, this focus on a single topic may also lead to a greater conversion capacity in terms of achieving a higher rate of contacts per views.
So we can say that if your company sells or wants to promote only a single product or service, for example something new that you are going to launch, this one-page website approach can be interesting. and that's where this idea evolved, further refining the landing-page concept that we'll be able to explore in the future.
Have a one page website? What were the results you got? I would love for you to share your experience.
Vítor Rodrigues worked for many years as a web programmer having developed websites since 1999. Since 2012 he coordinates the Samsys web team, which during this time has developed more than 100 WordPress sites, from institutional sites to online stores, including specific solutions for integration with other systems.
In the coming months, it will publish a set of articles based on questions that it has collected from the different conversations it has had with customers or potential customers. If you have any questions you would like to ask, please fill in the form below.
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