I was trying to find a good solution for a customer of mine. He has a brand new company, no clear idea of what he wants of his website except that he wants it to be the coolest site in the whole world (like many… does this sound familiar to anyone?) and no time to create content or think about it.
Therefore, until he has the time to think about this a bit more, he just wants a simple website: homepage, map and contact, list of dishes and prices (it is a resturant) and photo gallery.
It has, of course, to look as good as it can. That doesn’t change.
So I thought that maybe the best solution for a web that has so little content could be a one page website and I started to research a bit.
When I was googling around (can you say that? ) I found this article
I basically agree with what she says. Most of it. Well, at least the SEO part
But I don’t agree with the whole thing. I mean, for sites that don’t have much to say, concise and short… you can’t really optimized that much, can you? So SEO is not such a big deal.
Now, about confusing the user, I guess that goes with the UX and if you do it right, it doesn’t have to be that way.
I mean, “hate” is a strong word althoguh I guess you do need to have a title for your article…
What about you? do you love them, hate them or think (like myself) that sometimes it is suitable to use a one page website?
Here is how I did a one page site http://www.websitecodetutorials.com/portfolio/edit-your-website.com/ with jquery tabs. One page sites are bad for seo. Or not as good rather. You basically have three options. A long scrolling site. Which looks unprofessional in my opinion. Or a tabbed site. Or a horizontally tabbed site. With the later you have to hide the content which is t good for seo possibly. I would say just go for simple to the point multiple page site.
That’s what I mean… is it really that bad? When you really don’t have that much too say… is it really smart to create a regular site?
I think that in cases like this a one page website is a good compromise.
SEO-wise, it doesn’t matter because there is simply not enough content for that
Now, regarding the second point (the possible confussion of the viewers)… well, you do need to test your interface but if you do it right… why should they be confused?
Now days users are used to tabbed interface so I don’t think confusion is an issue. If done right u can’t even tell its one page. You could make a business card type site. Wordpress has many out of the box templates. Those are unique.
This thread is not about what I will do with this customer. It is more about the article itself that I found while I was researching some info for the site that I will do
I simply disagree with her radical attitude towards one page websites
I have seen some really cool examples and some which don’t work so well. For instance I think this one looks quite good but it’s an example of one that I reckon should be a multi-pager.
The only reason ‘in my humble opinion’ somebody would entertain a one-pager is his/her inability to pay for something worth while.
One pages are hated by Google for a reason, they lack content. Any website can have content, you’d be amazed how much you can share and write about yourself. I personally feel that clients considering a one-pager are not worth your time. I’ve dealt with them in the past, and they don’t see themselves in a serious light.
The only time I can think it’s professional to have a one-pager is if you’re promoting a single product on a landing page and targeting users with an advertising campaign, traditionally however, those landing pages are linked to larger websites, as it might only be the single page within a website.
As for real-life business’s, they need websites! If the client persists on a landing page I really feel you should not bother with them as they are likely to waste your time. From experience, tradesmen are the worse customers for this kind of thing, and yes, they are likely to ask you for a landing page (you might struggle trying to get them to settle outstanding invoices after their initial deposit, so yeap, I would stay clear of them).
PS: I apologize for sounding pessimistic. I’ve experienced these kind of clients and know them only too well, this is why I am sharing this.
I think there is a case for a happy medium since I dislike having to wait for a new page to open; only to be shown an identical header, footer, sidebars and very little new content.
I much prefer a list of say twenty questions and the answers hidden in an ‘accordion’ until the relevant question is clicked. Far better than scrolling through answers which are of no interest.
Another case springs to mind of how to display numerous thumbnails and having the selected thumbnail showing a larger version rather than opening a new page.
Maybe there is a case for an intermediate “more…” such as hovering or clicking a sidebar link, having an Ajax summary appear in the content section and with a “more…” link to the full article. This should make navigating a site so much quicker than having to open a new page, glance at the content then returning to try another link.
I would go for a multi-page website whenever possible, however by using the keywords in a clever way a single-page website can be ranked high but it depends what the key phrase is.
I personally designed a single-page website for my client and it’s displayed on the 1st page in Google above other multi-page websites offering same services. How strange that is
I know that if you make the effort you can find lots of content if you want to and I know that Google doesn’t like them (I already stated that SEO-wise is awful but then… not having content is awful too in terms of SEO so basically, in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter)
I disagree that all customers that consider a one-pager are not worth though.
Sometimes the reason that they do not have content or that they don’t think about it is that the company is small, one or two persons, and lack the time (for both doing it and learning) and the understanding (simply, knowing how to use Google doesn’t mean that you understand it)
Sometimes they’re aware that the need a website but they need time to build a strategy and plan the times to carry out that strategy but in the meantime they need to have something there.
If you only want to show a few pictures, inform of your opening hours, where you are and a contact form just in case someone wants to send you a message… well, a full, multi-paged website may not be worth in my opinion.
Of course, you can argue that you can add an “about us” section and a blog and so many more things but… that (especially the blog) requires planning
I do think that there are situations where one-page websites are suitable.
That’s true. I hate it so much I back click and find another page. Don’t have the patients for it. Like a single article they split into 10 pages. They do that I assume because they think it’s too much for a mobile to load. But loading ten pages is quicker? Right.
Google prob thought it was a non optimized mom and pop shop. Equal rights. That’s the new seo for ya. Seo is a bit and miss these days. There is not nearly as much rhym and reason. Just depends if you land on googles radar these days. For the same answer google awards forum discussion much more handsomely than websites who’s answrers are dead on. The top 10 will always show forums.
I would agree with that. I don’t even need documentation to confirm that. I know I always back click those. Prob because one page sites are usually associated with a long infomercial - usually just trying to sell something.
You are explaining why you feel that way, kiarafernandes didn’t, she just posted a statement without any explanation or data to back it up. That’s why I asked.
Of course, your explanation might not be 100%. I don’t backclick just because a site has only 1 page. So that makes our poll 50-50
) I found this article
