Single-page websites and web designs are not new concepts. In fact most of the time the businesses get confused when they will have to decide between a single-page web design and a multi-page web design. Another reason why this single-page vs multi-page battle is still going on is because of the importance of websites in modern society. Especially in Dubai and UAE markets, the websites for SMEs and big businesses have become extremely important in the past few years. The overall behavior and market trends have been changed. People are more likely to get influenced by digital and online information while making a purchase decision than ever before. In fact, digital platforms and marketing methods have already surpassed traditional marketing mediums. From local and small businesses to medium-size enterprises and even multinational businesses as well, everyone is investing a huge portion of their marketing budget on digital marketing platforms. And your website is the center point of your all online and digital marketing efforts. That is why it is extremely important to choose an appropriate web design for your business if you want to succeed in Dubai, UAE.
In a single page web design traditionally we have a long page and different information is segregated in different sections. We don’t have dedicated pages for different sets of information such as About page, Services Page, or Contact Page, etc like in traditional web designs. In fact, all the information is provided on a single page with usually a long scroll. Some single-page web designs also use a menu and upon clicking on a menu item/button it will take the user to the associated section on the same page. There are so many advancements in web designing and web development technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and Ajax are very helpful for providing a great user experience and user journey with a single-page website. Another important aspect to understand is that in a single-page website you must have to provide a very condensed version of the information in a single paragraph or a maximum of two paragraphs which otherwise could take up to several pages. This could be your biggest advantage and if not plotted well it could be your biggest disadvantage as well. So, choose wisely. This blog is a complete guide about a single-page website and when you should utilize a single-page website and when you shouldn’t.
Here are some of the benefits of a single-page website:
Simplified User Experience
One of the greatest advantages of a single-page website is its simpler and easier user interface. There is not much navigation or internal pages, everything is on the same page, the customers and visitors will know that all they need is to scroll a bit down to find their required information. This oversimplifies the customer journey and customer experience. The visitors will only have to scroll to a single page and they don’t have to navigate through complex menus with categories, sub-categories and might be three-step deeper to reach the information they are looking for. This makes the single-page web design navigation extremely simple comparing to the multi-page web design. Furthermore, single-page web designs are designed in a way that a user can easily identify different sections of the website. Moreover, there are anchor links or ‘hashes’ in the form of a menu to instantly take the user to the desired sections, for example, pricing, or services or contact details, etc. A single-page website is capable of providing an excellent user experience.
Better User Engagements
Another great advantage of a single-page web design is that it provides higher user engagements. As a single page is used to offer a certain type or niche of information so keeping the user engage in that is relatively easy. High user engagement is one of the reasons why most small and medium-size businesses opt for a single page web design. Furthermore due to the new technologies and tools the single page web design can be made more appealing and interactive to improve user engagements. When a page is communicating only a single message then it is easier to attain higher user engagements. It is been noticed by mainstream marketers and still a lot of research is going on to understand why single-page websites tend to be more engaging than their counterparts/multi-page web designs. These days more and more medium to large size businesses and enterprises are adopting single page websites. Due to the latest website development and programming tools, the user interaction and customer journey can be made more engaging which means better conversion rates as well.
Higher Conversion Rates and Online Leads
The user’s attentions are a key to online conversions. As we have already concluded that if done properly the single page web design is capable of attaining more user attention and user engagements, this factor directly impacts the conversions. Another factor that directly contributes to your conversion rate is your user experience. As a single-page website has a huge advantage of navigation and user interaction over traditional multi-page websites, it is obvious that users will be more likely to hit your CTA (call to action). The user experience is limited but great, which leaves a user with very less options to get distracted, as the user knows there is only one page so they will not bother to look for navigation and nested pages, they will find each and everything on a single page. This means that businesses can get more attention on their targeted sales pitches and it also provides less time for a visitor to decide or think much, so the conversion rate will be higher. Another big advantage is the highly focused and short content which leads to better conversion rates of a single-page website.
Highly Focused Content
The content is always a king. No matter how appealing your web design is, if your content is not up to the mark, you will never going to achieve your online conversion targets. People might think that for a single-page website the content creating would be simpler and easier. But that reality is totally the opposite. With a single page web design you have very limited space for the content, whether it is textual content or multimedia content, there is only a definite space. This means that you must have to be excellent at the content. Choose your sales pitches, content representation, and visual graphics wisely, instead of paragraphs use sentences, and instead of sentences use small phrases. Catchy words and key phrases will do better than an entire page length of content. Create a sense of excitement by engaging content and provide very precise and limited information. This will provide you an opportunity to compel your visitor to think more and it will also increase their curiosity. Hence the visitors are more likely to hit the contact button or to fill the form, whatever you want them to do. This also provides you a great opportunity to create highly focused content which leaves very little room for distraction and keeps the user to the topic and as they go down they absorb more of your sales pitches.
Cost-Effective and Easy to Maintain
Obviously, a single-page website is much more cost-effective than a traditional website. You have to create less content and less multimedia for the website. The designing and development cost is also low as there is only one page to build. The content updates and changes are relatively simpler and easier. If it is a dynamic website then there is literally no maintenance cost, you can update the site content easily from the CMS (content management system) without requiring any technical help. This makes single-page websites more cost-effective and easy to maintain.
More Mobile Friendly and Responsive
As there is only one page with a defined structure it is very easy to maintain a unified user experience on mobile devices. The cross-platform compatibility is also easy. The responsiveness or mobile-friendliness is very important for online conversions. These days most users are surfing the internet on their mobile devices or smartphones. It is important to provide them with a similar user experience on all compatible devices. Cross-platform compatibility has become more important these days as the number of browsers and platforms has increased and the difference between all those technologies has widened, hence maintaining cross-platform compatibility and cross-browser compatibility is critically important as the website source code tends to behave slightly different on different browsers and different platforms. Similar is the case with smartphones as well, but in the case of single-page web designs, it is easier to maintain a unified user experience on all smartphones, tablets, browsers, and platforms.
SEO Advantages
The single-page website is not so easy on the SEO front, but there are some really great advantages such as the link authority, and user engagements. It is easier to gain higher authority with a single-page website. As most of the SEO experts agree that website linking or backlinks can contribute to up to 40% of your SEO ratings, and with a single page website you don’t have to worry about improving the internal page, and all of your links will point towards the main URL only, which will quickly boost your rankings. There are no internal pages, so you don’t also have to worry about competing content or any such issues as well. In fact, all the marketing efforts and sources will lead to a single URL this way it will gain authority very easily and very quickly. The main objective of all SEO activities is always to attain higher domain and page authority. Because this will determine your position in the search result page.
Single Page Website – Why Not?
Well! A single-page website is great for quicker ranking and quicker conversion. It provides a great user experience, easy to maintain, and fairly cheaper than the traditional multi-page website. But single page web designs are not for everyone. As there is only one page so there is a limited amount of space to work around without making your page too long to be boring or compromising on user experience. Here are some scenarios when you shouldn’t choose a single page web design for your business’s website:
- If you have too much information
- If you have too many products and services
- If you have totally different products and services
- It is harder to get SEO ranks for multiple topics as it offers limited keyword optimization
- If you are offering a unique product or service
- Less room for future scalability without internal pages
- Require complex programming techniques to maintain a good user experience
- Load Time or Page Speed optimization is very difficult
These are just a few cases or disadvantages of a single-page web design. In case you are offering too many diversified products and services, it is extremely hard to rank for all of them. Single-page websites are an excellent option to rank quicker for the businesses who are offering one or two or at least all totally relevant products or services. Especially an excellent option for small and medium-sized businesses. For larger businesses of enterprises, a single-page website is not a good option. In fact, single pages websites are only suitable for small and localized businesses.
Conclusion
Single-page web designs are great due to their user experience, low cost, and easy maintenance. Especially such websites are very suitable for small and localized businesses. In case if your all products or services belong to the same niche then a single-page website is a great option to rank higher and quicker. The responsiveness and mobile-friendliness are also easier to build. The SEO is simpler. In fact, if a business wants to cut the cost, a single-page website is a great option to do so. But there are certain limitations as well such as less content, fewer keyword targeting, and very limited space hence a highly focused and very condensed content is required. The planning has to be flawless and it requires a lot of critical thinking to prepare the content and sales pitches.
If you are a business with more diverse products or services then a single-page website is not for you. A single-page website is only suitable for businesses who offer one or two or at least all similar products and services. A lot of market studies and our experience proved that a single-page website is extremely effective for small and localized businesses in Dubai and other parts of UAE. At RSI Concepts we always try to provide the best possible solution to our customer, if you are planning for a single-page website or want to build any type of website for your business, feel free to reach us out for a quote or just for consultancy through our Contact Us page or leave us a comment in the comment box below.
Check out this: 5 Impacts of Touch Screen Devices on Web Design
