Enhance of Cheshire required an affordable one-page small business website to support their Social Media and Offline Marketing.
Like all small businesses who are just starting out there were budgets to consider...
A budget that also had to include the creation of the brand itself. The branding of any new business is the most important investment a business owner should make and is where the greatest proportion of available budget should be placed. The brand needs to last, it needs to stand the test of time and not date. Forget 'trendy' pre-made logos that are created generically - these are the ones you will become bored of and eventually hate because everyone else in your marketplace (or beyond) will look the same! You need a brand you are proud of so you can get behind it 100%.
Thankfully Enhance of Cheshire understood the value of branding and had already had their brand created (by the fabulous Anna at VDF Creative - a freelance designer I regularly work with). As a large proportion of the budget had been spent on the brand (and rightly so) we discussed the options available for the website and agreed on a solution that would not only deliver the wow factor and promote the business alongside Social Media and Offline Marketing, but that would, more importantly, allow for online expansion inline with the growth of the business.
The single page website solution
A single page website is also referred to as a parallax scrolling website. These kind of websites enable the user to scroll through the content of the entire page or use the familiar navigational links located at the top of the page to jump to relevant sections. A single page website can be built and designed to look like a multi-page from the users point of view. The layout of single page website is mainly image driven and is most certainly mobile friendly (as ALL websites should be!), making the user experience relatively straight forward.
The main objective of any website is to generate leads. A single page website looks much better than a landing page and communicates all of the required details and features of the business. The simple information flow and access of information leads to a lower bounce rate as the user can access information more effectively then when trawling through multiple pages. The call to action is the prominent 'next step' for the visitor - which is exactly what is intended. No more clicking on tabs and waiting for pages to load, everything you need is on a single page – simple, but effective.
A single page website is much quicker to design and develop than a multi-page site and that has a huge impact on available budget and cost – which accounts for their popularity with new businesses and start-ups. With this in mind it was clear that a single page website would be the perfect starting point for Enhance of Cheshire.
Future proofing single page websites
There are disadvantages to having a single page website that all businesses should be aware of. It can be very difficult to optimise a single page for a few keywords without it appearing spammy, and you only have a single title tag, meta description and URL to play with. This limitation in optimising your website can limit your business website being found in a Google Search, for example. Plus if you have a lot of information to share (or you need to add new services or additional information to your website in future), it can be difficult to structure your site correctly so it doesn’t overwhelm your visitors and makes it difficult for businesses with multiple products or services to successfully promote and sell their goods.
With a number of advantages and disadvantages to single page websites, the best way to decide on their suitability for your business is by analysing your current budget, needs and the requirements for your website. Also consider the predicted business growth or future business goals and commit future budget to 'expanding' the one page website build into a multi-page website. Think of it as a work in progress and recognise that a single page website far out-weighs a landing page - or worse, no website at all!
The single page website for Enhance of Cheshire has been built with future development in mind. At any point the website can be adapted and re-developed as a multi-page website without the need to start again from scratch.
Factors to consider when choosing between a single page and multi-page website
- What budget do you have available to spend on your website? If you can only afford a single page website then make the most of it with the very best graphics and content whilst providing a solid flow of information to the visitor, maximising leads as much as possible.
- Can you commit extra budget for further website development after year one? If so then make sure your single page website allows for affordable growth.
- How important is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to your business? If you do most of your marketing and sales via Social Media or Offline Marketing you might not need to factor in your Organic Search Engine Rankings (how the Search Engines find you in connection to a potential customers search terms and key words) to begin with.
- How much content will you be placing on your website? If you have a lot of content to include on your website, or you are selling multiple products and services then a single page website is less likely to accommodate your needs.