Pro’s, Con’s and Best Tips On How To Create A One Page Website
So you have decided you want to know how to create a one page website or at least for the time being a single page site is all your business needs. A one page website can be an alluring option for many small businesses. Before embarking on this direction consider the pro’s and con’s. We also look at how to make that one page work hard to bring business in.
For a start it is going to be cheaper, it won’t require a huge amount of input from you to provide images or proof read text and you won’t have a blog to maintain either. Sounds sweet hey!
Not so fast. There a few key things to consider when launching any business website (small or large). A single page website you will give you extremely limited space so it is crucial to be very specific about what you want from it. Firstly, decide on your Top 3 Ultimate Goals.
ULTIMATE GOALS
• Is your key objective to provide contact or location details?
• Are you aiming to drive traffic to purchase online?
• Do you want to convert visitors to sales leads or enquiries?
• Looking to build brand awareness amongst your target audience?
• Generate a qualified database of potential clients?
• Or even just support your brand credibility,
Once you have your ‘Top 3 Ultimate Goals’ then you will need to work out how they will come to fruition. This means deciding what ways you can guide the the viewer toward your goals.
Let’s say your number one goal is to purchase from the shop, ok then feature a few items from the shop above the fold. Or make an appointment – then ensure your phone and email are visible in the most obvious place in the layout plus in the top menu bar and have a simple clear call to action – ‘call or email to make an appointment’. If the main goal is to encourage customers into your shop/restaurant/business then a few irresistible photo’s that show off the ambience or taste appeal of your space will be required.
In the case of Very Vanilla one of the ultimate goals was to encourage online wholesale orders. So we dedicated a page section to attracting this exact outcome. Keep it simple – no fancy image rotations… just a photo accentuating the labour intensive nature of farming vanilla and a clear outline of the wholesale ordering process.
THE PRO’S
+ A one page website will be a concise snippet of your business activities
+ It can provide your contact information, map and opening hours
+ Link to your social media channels
+ It is cheaper than a larger site
+ Can be built with an easy to use content management system
+ Automatic back ups, speed optimisation and robust security are all included
THE CON’S
– Essentially a one page website is an online flyer
– It will NOT index well with search engines and therefore not drive much traffic to your business
– Content that is attractive to the search engine algorithm is severely limited with only one page
– The hosting and domain costs are the same with a single page site as a 20 page site
– Search engine optimization software will make little impact
– Google likes an active website with regular contributions a one page website does not facilitate this
– Limited capability
BEST TIPS FOR HOW TO CREATE A ONE PAGE WEBSITE
Content First
A huge 87% of viewers ‘scan’ rather than ‘read’ website copy. For this reason we recommend content with information snippets, lists, bullet points, bolded sections and headings throughout. Including symbols that add credit to your business is also a good idea.
Feast for the Eyes
Use images which really capture the viewers heart, soul and tastebuds. Feed the senses with gorgeous photo’s that support your brand with loads of positive energy. Average photo’s will represent your business as well…. average.
Contact Section
Ok so this is the part where people contact you – yes YOU…. a person. Put a photo of yourself in the contact section so the viewer already feels they know you. Keep the details simple and easy to find. Use a contact form that cannot be accessed by robots to reduce to your spam.
The Hero
If you are selling a product feature it! Yes it sounds obvious but I often see sites where the product is hidden inside a menu. Just show it off in a nice simple clean format.
Think About Your Visitor
A one page website offers very limited space. After all no-one wants to wade through 5 metres to find what they want. Best approach is to be very succinct and section your content. Limit your words. Get to the point. Don’t waffle on. Strip out the fluff. Check out how we did it with Very Vanilla.
Maximise Click Through Rates
Remember the Google algorithm will need (a lot) of encouragement to get to your one page website ranking high in an organic search so make sure you maximise your chances with an awesome title tag and page description. Think of this as your MOST important piece of advertising. After all this is the first encounter many potential customers will have with your business. Notice that we included the Very Vanilla Ultimate Goal: Wholesale Orders in the description! For more information about improving your search engine optimisation check out this article for SEO beginners.
Ok so these are my Pro’s, Con’s and 6 top tips for How To Create A One Page Website. We build all our websites in WordPress with Divi and with an SEO foundation. If you would like to talk about the cost similar to Very Vanilla – we built recently, then call 07 3862 1236 or email [email protected].
