One of the hottest and latest trends in website design/development is to create a single page website for any business.
What is single page website?
Majority of Internet users already know about what is single page or one page website. Simply we can say a single page website shows complete content on one page where user can navigate using scrolling down or up. This type of site do not have any other pages or links to access other pages on site. Goal of single page website is providing a more fluid user experience. In most of single page website all assets including images, JavaScript, are loaded in one go. Many sites load assets in response to user’s interaction to make site faster.
Single page website design sometimes also referred as page-less design. It means creating a compelling story for readers or website visitors. With page-less design users do not have to go through different pages to find information they are looking. They can find all information on single page and it can be easier for them to understand.
Some features of single page website:
- Single page websites has no other pages like Our Team, Our Services, Our Work – Portfolio, Contact Us, About Us, etc… Instead all these pages are shown as sections.
- Any additional information (most of time because of space issues) which can not fit in sections are shown using model windows.
- Loading content with Ajax.
- Single page website may have other pages but links to these additional pages are not visible in the top menu bar or in website header. Instead links are there in footer which stops distracting the website visitors from the reading experience. Some examples pages are Terms of Use, Privacy Policy,
Who could benefit from a single page website:
- Small business sites
- Sites having limited amount of content to show
- Parallax or scrolling lovers
- Websites related to one time event (meeting, wedding, special occasion, etc…)
- Product launch websites
- Portfolio websites
Who should not thought about having single page website:
If you are having a site with lots of content or many products from different categories then single page website can be huge mess to show content to users. Think about a site like Wikipedia is one page site with all pages one by one then it is impossible to navigate, even one can’t imagine that. If search engine rankings is a priority then it is best to go with multi page websites.
While deciding to go with single page website one should make sure to evaluate the purpose of website. Then determine whether website is best suited for that design or not.
Designing small site with simple or less content is not the only reason behind single page website. There are many reasons to choose single page website design like bandwidth needs, intuitive to use, easier for maintenance, etc…
Benefits of single page website:
Easier to maintain
Designing single page can take less time (depends on what kind of information and how much information you like to present) and therefore the maintaining the site will be easier as well because we just have to concentrate on single page.
Low bounce rates
Single page website decreases the bounce rates because there can be little to confuse about. If site is designed well and showing same information user looking for then visitors tend to hang out longer.
Better SEO
Inbound links are important part of SEO. Search engines are useful sources of getting traffic. By having single page website you only have one page being linked to and it can increase importance of website. But if you like to target individual keywords on a per page basis then choosing a single page website is not good idea. Targeting distinct keyword phrases on a single page design can be messy.
Better story telling
Most of time single page websites use a storytelling angle that is not suitable with multi page websites. Story telling with single page website can inspire visitors to take action and increase conversions.
Intuitive to use
With single page website visitors just needs to know is how to scroll. Simply scrolling will allow visitors to go from one section to another. There can be navigations at the top or pointers to go from one section to another but that can be additional.
Encourages sharing
With larger sites having multi pages it is hard to share entire website, in most of cases user share just a single inner page or homepage. Single page websites encourage sharing because there is only one page to share, instead of sharing different pages with different kind of users.
Affordable
Beautiful single page website can be designed in quick time when we compare it with designing site with same concept but with multi page. It allow focusing on only single page.
Eliminate mobile site
A site with multi page can be difficult sometime in terms of making it responsive. But a single page website can be designed in responsive manner quickly.
- There are few more benefits of single page website, including:
- Easier to organize content.
- Reduced bandwidth
- Makes iteration more effective, faster and easier
- Higher conversation rates
- Presents content in a stimulating way.
If you are looking to build your own one page website then I can provide best solutions using HTML5/CSS3, Twitter Bootstrap, PHP and WordPress. I can create best suitable layout and design for your business and then build very attractive website which can help your business gaining more customers/visitors. Feel free to connect with me and share any of the requirement you may have
Check out my one page PSD template and HTML Template on ThemeForest. Best suitable for personal portfolio, small business websites, creative studio and product launch websites.