By Princess Jones
Often when I have my first conversation with a new web design client, they have really big ideas. They want a lot of content. They want a *shudder* flash intro. They want twenty different pages and a menu hierarchy that would make your head spin. They want the biggest website ever.
This doesn’t surprise me anymore. I’ve been down this road before. Lots of new small business owners come to the table with grand ideas of a website. But when we get down to what will work for both their business goals and their customer satisfaction, I find that more and more businesses can benefit from a simple one page website.
1. Simple
The best thing about having a one-page business website is the simplicity that naturally comes with it. Visitors often get overwhelmed by websites that have a lot of bells and whistles. Remember, they generally have already have a purpose when they type in your URL. And more and more of them are using mobile devices to visit your site. Whatever information they are looking for or whatever task they are trying to complete ridiculously easy to do.
Keep in mind that not all business websites require simplicity. If you’re a personal chef who just needs a landing page for all of your booking information, a one-page site is perfect. It could also work for a food truck that only needs a short menu, social media feeds, and contact information. But a recipe sharing site probably might be hampered by that much simplicity.
2. Conditioned to Scroll
As mobile users rise, small business websites need to accommodate them. In terms of mobile, scrolling navigation is king. Mobile operating systems rely on scrolling to get users from one place to another. All of the social media sites rely on scrolling to bring up new content.
Tapping links is less and less common in mobile web design because it requires a precision that’s difficult with fingers and thumbs. Swiping, on the other hand, is much more natural when you’re using your hands. When you use a one-page website design, you’re piggybacking on the scrolling behavior that’s so common in mobile and making visitors more at home on your site.
3. Intuitive Storytelling
A key desire in marketing is to take the readers on a journey from start to finish. You control what information they get and how they get it, which means you have more control over how they receive the message. With a multi-page website, readers have the option to skip from page to page, creating their own narrative. With a one-page website, your readers have no choice but to follow the path you set up for them.
4. Improved Conversion
Whether you know it or not, conversion is the entire reason for your small business website to exist. Conversion is just the act of a prospect (or website visitor) doing what you want them to do—whether that’s buying your product, interacting with your social media pages, or signing up for your email marketing list. The rate at which your prospects convert says a lot about the efficacy of your website.
One-page websites tend to have higher conversion rates. Their straightforward simplicity forces them to make very clear calls to action. There’s less content management, less bells and whistles, and less for the visitor to get distracted by.
