Behold the Power of the 1-Page Website
1-page websites? That’s bad, right? I would think that the more pages the better.
Wrong. 1-page websites
have numerous benefits over
multi-page websites. They’re easier to
navigate through, easier to find information on, and quicker to load. Did I mention search-engine friendly? Most websites don’t need multiple pages but
are built that way because the programmers and designers didn’t know any better. It’s the “standard” procedure, but no one
really thought it through.
So why are multi-page websites bad? Well, first of all the user has to understand
the website structure - how every page is related to every other page, how to
navigate between them, and then guess which page to click on in order to find
the necessary information. Ever go to a
website but were unable to find what you were looking for or ever get lost at a
website only to give up in frustration? That’s
because it takes time and energy to interpret the website structure, and guess
as to where the programmer decided to hide the information that you were looking
for. If your thought process was
different from the programmers, you’ll have a hard time finding what you
want.
Second, every time the user clicks to a new page they have
to wait for the page to reload entirely.
Most of the time very little information changes from page to page, where
most of what loads is just overhead (all the page content around the text). Every second that the user waits for the
page to load doubles the likelihood they will leave your website altogether. No one wants to wait for websites to
load. They have more important things to
do.
Third, with multi-page websites you can’t control how the
user clicks through the content. With
that said, there are most certainly times when multi-page websites are
appropriate, but for most small businesses, one page can be far more effective.
Trolley Web specializes in 1-page websites. Why is a 1-page website so powerful?
First, you can control the flow of information to the
user. You can choose what they look at,
and when. There is no navigating away to
other pages to distract from the flow of your story. By doing this you are able to effectively
weave a narrative about your business, what you do, and why they should care.
Second, the user never has to navigate away from the page
they're on. There is no getting lost or
getting bogged down in figuring out the website structure.
Third, the user only has to wait for the page to load
once. This is extremely powerful because
the user can find what they are looking for very quickly. The faster and easier you can get your users
interested in your products and services, the more likely they are to become
customers.
OK, I’m convinced that a 1-page website is right for my
business, but does that mean that I have to limit the amount of content that I
can put on my website? Absolutely
not. You might be surprised to hear that
the same amount of information can fit on 1-page websites as it can on a
multi-page website. We’ve developed
unique and clever ways to make the information appear in digestible chunks for
the user. Most of the content is hidden until
it is needed to be seen. The content is
hidden within drop-down expandable areas and content sliders (visit trolleyweb.com
for demos). Once the reader wants to
know more, they can click that section, it will expand and the content will be
visible. This makes it very easy for the
user to see everything on your website at once, and accurately target where the
information that they’re looking for lies.
At Trolley Web, we've redesigned the typical website user
experience. Your website will look
different from the typical website, be easier to use, and most importantly result
in more sales for your business. Try the
1-Page Wonder. You’ll be amazed!
