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One of the first and most important steps to creating your own website is deciding on your design layout, which usually starts with choosing between a single or multi-page design.
Single Page websites are exactly what they sound like – they’re websites where all the content is displayed on one long page that you scroll through. Multi-page websites separate their content into different web pages. It can seem difficult to pick the direction in which to take your site – the trendy, new, sleek single page look, or the traditional and well-known multi-page. Weighing the pros and cons of each can help make your decision much easier.
When thinking about your layout, the most important thing to keep in mind is your content and how you want it to be seen.
Pros of Single Page Design
Let’s start with single page websites. This design has become very popular and is most often seen on social media – think Facebook or Twitter feeds. It’s clean, simple, easily digestible, and it draws the user in. Don’t get the wrong idea – just because this design is mostly used on social media sites does not mean you can’t apply the same principles to other types of websites. No matter the story you’re trying to tell, the linearity provides your user with an exact amount of content one step at a time. This natural flow makes the content easy to consume, and means that users are less likely to leave your site right away.
“Users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention for much longer.” – Jakob Nielsen
Also keep in mind your site’s purpose and call to action. Single page designs cater to content that is light, simple, and specific. Using this design allows users to quickly make their decision and act on it without getting lost in unrelated information or losing interest. Because of that, this design is better suited for mobile adaptation as well.
A couple other things to consider when creating your website are obviously your budget and technical skills. Using a single page design simplifies much of the development of the site, which in turn keeps costs low for both the initial development and future updates.
Cons of Single Page Design
Now, all those things sound great, but realistically not every person will want their website to function like this. Though the single page design has many nice benefits, it could end up hurting you depending on the amount and nature of your content. Single page designs restrict scalability, meaning it might be tougher to effectively add new content as your brand grows. In addition to that, this simplistic design is not well suited for heavier, more complex content that may require better navigation and organization.
Another important thing to consider with single page designs is their SEO (search engine optimization) capabilities. What this means is that because there is generally less content, fewer pages, and less opportunity for keywords in a single page design, search engines will likely not display them as highly in search results. This can be an issue if your site relies on heavy, organic traffic.
Pros of Multi-Page Design
Everybody’s used a multi-page website before. This is the traditional way websites are built because of their high functionality and versatility. Using this design is always a safe bet and can provide you with lots of flexibility on how you want to organize your content. Unlike the single page design, having multiple pages can allow you to scale up your site. This also leaves a lot of freedom for you to design your site in whatever way best suits your content.
Multi-page websites are best utilized with multifaceted content that can be naturally divided into separate pages for more focused user interaction. This allows visitors to find exactly what they are looking for instead of having to scroll through unrelated content, which can lead to frustration and reduce the effectiveness of your website.
Having this organization that helps the user get to where they want to go quickly helps encourage them to explore the other aspects of your website. Separating out the content makes it easier to explore your content one page at a time rather than overwhelming them with a bulk of information.
Cons of Multi-Page Design
With more content and more to develop, a larger budget will be required to accommodate the extra time it would take to create and update your site. Additionally, designing a site that successfully draws in users while providing a natural and comfortable flow can be more challenging.
In Summary
To summarize everything that’s been mentioned, picking your website design depends mainly on the content you want to display and how you want users to interact with it. Single page sites are often cheaper to develop and are best used when displaying a smaller amount of content that is specific and has a clear call to action. The downfalls come when trying to scale your site and utilize SEO.
A multi-page website design is best at handling greater amounts of content, is highly adaptable, and can better utilize SEO for higher traffic; however, this design is often more complicated to make, which requires a larger budget, and is also more difficult to design successfully for the desired user experience.
So, when you’re ready to start the process of creating your website, remember that there is no wrong answer, but to get the most out of your website, keep in mind this very simple question: What do I have to display, and how do I want users to interact with it?
For help designing and building your website, you can always reach out to AG Marketing Solutions at 610-337-8484.
