The Case for a One-Pager Mobile Site
Long, one-page websites are a great addition our mobile centered society. Implementing a one-page site has become something to consider when making a website as 80% of Internet users own a smartphone. Today's consumer spends nearly 60% of their time on the Internet on mobile devices, instead of desktops, tablets or other devices; so one-page sites can take advantage of that!
A one-page site is easier for users to simply scroll through a page as all of the needed information is concisely written in one place. This prevents users from having to constantly click on links and sidebars to find each sector of a website.
Another benefit to this type of website is that you can create a navigation system based on anchors. These anchors will take the reader to the exact place that they need to view on the page, as opposed to having to go through other tabs or links. Combine that with a sticky navigation – a menu bar that moves with the page, and animation-based slick scrollbar, and you could have a site that completely engages users, keeping them coming back to see what is new in a user-friendly way.
Furthermore, another major benefit to owning a one-page website is that it requires visitors to browse through information in the exact way that you intended it to be viewed. Being able to direct visitors through the information on your site, in a predetermined manner of your choosing, can benefit your business by directing visitors to the content you want them to see most. For image content, consider leveraging Parallax, an interesting technique in which background images move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth. To see a cool example of this technique, visit Jackson-Mee's site and make sure to move your mouse around the screen!
As with everything in life, there are some drawbacks to using this type of site.
One of these limitations is when you collect of your content onto a single page. This makes it difficult to analyze analytical information. In order to give your website visitors the best user experience, it is often necessary to look into information such as bounce rates, time spent on each page, and where traffic is being lost. From this, you can make relevant and necessary changes, after seeing what works for your website and what doesn’t. This priceless information gets a little difficult to decipher when it all relates to one single page.
Another drawback, when considering user experience, is the longer load time that can occur with a single page site. When managing your content, especially when using larger images (you’re optimizing all of your images for web, right?) you want to make sure that you don’t have a slow-loading time, resulting in a lose of viewers before they even see your content. We are a “right now!” society, so when creating your website, keep in mind that if your visitor doesn’t get your content immediately, they will most likely give up. If we’ve convinced you with the positives to use a one-page site, you might consider taking a look at a lazy loading page, particularly when planning to incorporate a lot of content. An option to counteract a slowly loading page is having the information load, as the user needs it.
As you can see, before jumping onto the single-page bandwagon, consider all of the downsides, do extensive research on how to optimize your content for one page, and plan your images and content accordingly. Single page websites have their place and advantages, when used for a specific purpose, and can be extremely beneficial to your website’s visitors! Check out our other blogs for more marketing and branding ideas!
