What is a one-pager website

Suppose you want a new website, but you don’t have a lot of information or you want to be very focused in your messaging. Then a one-pager Web site can be a very good solution. When I give this advice, I am often asked what exactly a one-pager entails. So time to write this out in an article.

A one-pager website is a website that consists of only one page. Instead of having a website made that switches between pages through the menu, you place everything on one page. Often a menu is still present but scrolls smoothly to the different sections on the page. A nice example is the website we created for Marcel van Houte.

What is a one-pager?

One-pager Web sites are often a lot longer than an average home page, which makes sense considering you need to put all the information on that one page. Many times pop-ups are used to share more detailed information instead of moving to a new page. This way you can still put all the information without working with multiple pages.

In practice, you will find that one-pager Web sites do have some (hidden) deeper-lying pages. For example, a one-pager may lead to a checkout that then ends in an e-learning environment. Or behind the one-pager hangs another blog environment to promote online findability. This is also totally fine in my opinion. The idea of the one-pager website is to do your whole pitch in one page, not so much a technical limitation.

But the idea is that the home page serves as a complete website and can convey the full story.

When should you choose a one pager website?

When I recommend a one-pager it is usually because of one of the following reasons:

• You can choose a one-pager website if you have one proposition you want to offer.
• Often, one-pager websites are a good choice for artists, freelancers with very specific niche offerings, or companies offering one product.
• If you want to submit your website page as a sales page, this is often one very long page where you put all the arguments, this then leads directly to a check-out or conversion point
• You have a small offer but want to have a website created with wow effect
• It is also an option that, compared to a full website, costs less and is online faster.
• Often, one-pagers are also suitable for entrepreneurs and businesses that don’t actually need a website, but want to put something online that presents their business well. These days, many people take a quick look online anyway. A one-pager website can then function well as an online business card with less (or no) focus on conversion.

What are the pros and cons of a one-pager website

Advantages:

• You’ll be online faster with a one-pager than having an entire website developed.
• All the information your target audience is looking for can be found on one (clear) page.
• You have complete control over the flow of the visitor because they simply scroll down. With a full website, you have less control over what content is viewed and in what order.

Disadvantages:

• SEO technically, a one-pager is a less good option if you find more than one keyword important to be found on. You would still need a blog environment, which negates the one-pager concept.
• With a one-pager, you have fewer options for conversions. You don’t want to promote 5 different conversion points on one page because that’s hugely distracting. So this is where you need to make a clear choice.
• Do you have a lot of content or different propositions or services. Then a one-pager will not be useful in many cases. To put it all on one page is simply too much information for a Web site visitor to take it all in.

Still not sure what is convenient for your situation? Feel free to contact me and I will tell you in a free consultation the options that are convenient based on your needs.