With so many websites on the internet offering a huge array of features, designs and interaction, finding a way to make yours stand out can be difficult. So instead of trying to compete with the all-singing, all-dancing multi-page sites of your competitors, why not go back to basics and create a simple but effective single page scrolling website?
What is a single page scrolling website?
A single page scrolling website does exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of having a top or side menu bar with different page options, all of the content is on one page that the user can scroll up and down or side to side. Pulling the curtain back on the single page website design
Consider your content
If you’re thinking of creating a single page scrolling website, the main area to excel in is your content. If you’ve got lots of technical data or complex information that needs to go on the site, you’ll need to plan and design your layout carefully to avoid overwhelming the user with visual clutter. A simple way to do this is to get a piece of paper and draw your website out. You’ll be able to get a good overall impression of how busy or simple it will look when completed.
As it is just a single page website, the order that you place the information on the page will be very important. If you’re trying to advertise or sell a product or service, you should make sure that all the information that a visitor needs is clearly visible when arriving on the page.
Consider your user
Most users will navigate your page intuitively, so try to lay it out in a simple and effective manner. Even though your website is on a single page, you can still have a menu that users can click to jump to various page sections. It’s also a good idea to insert ‘back to top’ links throughout the page so that users don’t have to spend time scrolling all the way back to the top every time they want to look at something new.Examples of Minimalist Landing Pages
This will help users navigate your site quickly and easily, making the fact that it’s a single page irrelevant.
Making it work smoothly
Ensure your implementation works smoothly and effectively. Make sure that all content, including pictures, videos and documents are small enough that they’ll load instantly as visitors are scrolling down the site.
To ensure that the site scrolls well, you can include some extra ‘smooth scroll’ code in the set up in order to prevent any jumpy or clunky movements.
Making the most of SEO
With most multi-page websites, meta-tags and SEO will be implemented on each page, giving the search engines a lot of information about your site and its content. With a single page scrolling site, this won’t be possible so you’ll need to make the most of the other forms of SEO. Try to obtain incoming links from good quality external websites to the various sections of your site. This will help to show the search engines that your content is trustworthy and of a good standard. You can also use internal anchors and links within the text to try and make clear which are the most important keywords for your site.25 Gorgeous Joomla! Websites: How to Reach the Top?
Conclusion
Though SEO and navigation can be a challenge, a single page scrolling website can be an effective and easy to use solution to your website needs. Easy enough to build and maintain yourself, they offer a real alternative to complex multi-page websites.
