When you’re planning to build a website for your business you need to know all your options. Do you need a multi-page website or a one page website? And what are the differences between these two types? In this blog post I give you all you need to know about one page websites, so as you can make an empowered decision.
What are one-page websites?
A one page website is a site that has only one page. Unlike most websites that have multiple pages (home, about, contact etc.), one page websites have a single page (only homepage).
But is only one page enough?
In some cases, one page is more than enough for a site. When you don’t have enough to say or sell then it’s not mandatory to create redundant pages that confuse your website’s visitors.
What’s more, a lot of multi-page websites add entirely unnecessary clutter. For example, contact forms are often given their own pages, when they could easily be added to the bottom of your home page instead.
How technically different are one page websites to multi-page websites?
Not much different. It’s even easier to create them, since you only must worry about one page.
The only different functionality you need are anchor links. These are links that direct you on a different section of the same page.
You can also optionally add custom scrolling effects (effects that take place on the page while the visitor scrolls down).
Do one page websites work?
One page websites work, but just like multi-page websites you need to achieve certain goals when you build them:
- Your single page website needs to be user friendly, clean & beautiful
- It needs to be conversion focused; in other words, designed to lead the user to do something specific like subscribe, contact you or buy your product/service
- It needs to load fast
- You need to know when to use a single page website
When to use single page websites?
You may wonder… are one page websites a good idea for me?
One-page websites may be the correct choice for you, if:
- You are a local business; if for example, you’re a plumber or an electrician and you want a simple one page website that you can link to your Google Business Profile to look more professional.
- You want to showcase your portfolio; like the scenario above, if you’re a freelancer and you want to look more professional and attract more clients by having your own site.
- You sell only one product or service; if you only have one thing to sell and you can cram all information about this one thing into a single page.
“There’s a difference between risk and a really bad idea.”
John Sampogna
If you want to include more features into your site (e.g. a blog section or user accounts) then a single page website is not the right choice for you.
For example, my website (the one you’re currently on) is a multi-page website with 24 pages, 29 blog posts and 2 online courses as of this writing.
If I had to squeeze all this content into one page, you would have to be scrolling down forever to find what you need. So, eventually you would leave the website.
One page website examples
In case you’re not 100% what a one page website is let’s get some inspiration from 3 outstanding examples of this unique type of website.
CleanShot
Cleanshot is an example of a single page website that uses a landing page as its homepage.
In other words, this website doesn’t have a menu.
This company sells a snipping tool for Mac users and by using clean design, videos and GIFs they have managed to clearly convey what their product offers.
Hypnax
Hypnax is an example of an e-commerce shop that sells only one product.
They have dedicated a single page to describe what their product is about and how it can help you sleep better.
If you decide to buy this product then you get directed to the Shopify checkout page used by all online shops that use Shopify.
Yellow Music & Sound
My very good friend George from Yellow Music & Sound sells music, sound and podcast productions.
He also has a 1st podcast production for free offer, so make sure you check him out, if you’re into podcasting.
In his website you can see that he has cleverly managed to include his About, Services, Clients and Contact pages into a single page.
In this website you can also notice the use of anchor links in the header menu that direct visitors to different sections inside the same page.
How do I make a one page website?
So, how can you build a one page website? And is it easier than building a multi-page website?
Yes, it’s easier, but this doesn’t mean that you can skip basic principles and requirements that normal websites entail.
You still need to have full control of your website; it stills needs to load fast and most importantly it needs to convert visitors into customers.
To help you achieve all the above I've created a free online course where I show you how to build a one page website from scratch in only 30 minutes.
Until next time.
