What Is Pageless (Or ‘Single-Page’) Design and Why You Should Use It
PAGELESS WEBSITES by That Social Agency
INTRODUCTION
Pageless (or ‘single-page’) design is a type of website structure where all of the information you need is presented on one page, instead of several pages.
Pageless design can help you to transform an outdated website into a contemporary and enjoyable experience. With a guided narrative, responsive elements and intuitive scrolling, users can absorb the entire contents of your website with ease.
3 BENEFITS OF PAGELESS DESIGN
- RESPONSIVE
Pageless design harnesses responsive elements with fluid grids that work well on any platform. Seamless, flexible frameworks to provide optimum experiences across all devices, from smartphones to desktops.
From April 21, 2015, Google Search expanded its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. These changes affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and it has a significant impact in Google Search results. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, there may be a significant decrease in mobile traffic from Google Search. Read more from Google here and here.
We also know that the majority of digital media consumption takes place on mobile, as illustrated in this report from comScore.
It’s no longer a case of asking whether mobile users are significant, it’s a question of how do we market to them effectively. Pageless design embraces responsive and mobile-friendly elements to coexist with the changing digital landscape.
2. INTUITIVE SCROLLING
Scrolling is prevalent in almost all of our favourite social media apps, so why don’t we use it in our web design? Pageless design embraces intuitive, linear scrolling in a single page.
Here are 4 pros on why you should adopt scrolling for your website from Vibethink:
- Speed: Scrolling is faster than clicking, and enables the user to view a lot of information without the page load slowing down, or breaking, his/her concentration.
- Non-committal: Scrolling doesn’t require the user to make a decision; it’s a noncommittal action. Clicking requires a conscious decision which means that your audience needs to know what they want and be motivated to get there. For many sites, you won’t want to bank on this.
- Mobile & Touch Friendly: Scrolling is an easy and natural interaction for touch screen devices
- Scrolling is Inevitable: The verdict is in, with the advent of social media feeds like Facebook and Twitter, and the use of touch screen mobile devices, scrolling is the most natural and intuitive action for a user on the web; it’s what we’ve been trained to do.
3. A STRUCTURED NARRATIVE
Stories have the ability to inspire, motivate and elicit action. But even the best stories lose their significance when they are told out of order.
Pageless design allows you to control the order in which information is presented to your audience, creating a guided account of connected events. This is useful when developing stories and displaying the most important information first. This is very difficult to manage when using a traditional, multi-page design.
IS PAGELESS DESIGN RIGHT FOR YOU?
SEO
Q. If all of my site content exists on one single page, do I miss the opportunity to improve SEO by defining important meta data, keywords, and URLs?
A. This is false. With a higher core content density, your site will remain search engine friendly and your Google PageRank score will apply to the whole site. With one foolproof and self-explanatory branded website, you will also increase social sharing, decrease bounce rates, and increase conversion rates. This will improve your SEO exponentially from day one.
We also use a URL structure and on page links for each section of the page. For example, with That Social Agency, we created unique URLs for each content section. Here are a few examples:
http://www.thatsocialagency.com/#our-services
http://www.thatsocialagency.com/#fancy-a-chat
LARGE SITES
Q. Is a pageless design bad for large sites, or for example, those with a large product inventory or a gallery?
A. This can be difficult, particularly for large product inventories and businesses that have many sectors. However, pageless design can still be achieved with the use of multiple ‘pageless’ structures, pages and sub-domains. By linking these together you can create a catalog of individual but combined powerful single page sites.
Those with populous content should not shy away from a pageless structure. Concise information with clear goals will only benefit the end user and, in turn, lead generation and customer acquisition.
SEE IT IN USE
Q. I’m still not convinced, can you show me?
A. Check out One Page Love for hundreds of successful and unique pageless websites in action. Or head over to our portfolio to see some of our work.
We are no longer building websites, we are telling stories. We cannot always rely on the user to know what they want when they land on your homepage, or where to find it. Our websites need to guide our audience to a clear end goal with minimal effort. If the user cannot discover this easily and quickly, they will look elsewhere.
Mobile app developers have transformed the way we use and experience the Internet and Google is rewarding those who embrace a mobile-friendly digital strategy. Scrolling is now much more intuitive than clicking and a pageless design is becoming much more familiar than a multi-page design. We should be taking inspiration from mobile developers to evoke the satisfaction we receive from our favourite mobile apps and to push the boundaries of traditional web design to create enjoyable experiences online.
The Internet has progressed significantly and pageless design offers all of the benefits available in the new digital landscape. It’s time to stop creating multi-page mazes and create memorable, enjoyable, intuitive and pageless experiences for our customers.
Pageless design is the future. The question is, will you be an early adopter?
PAGELESS WEBSITES by That Social Agency
A team of digital nomads who help start-ups and social enterprises achieve their dreams through marketing and single-page websites.
We are led by our love for life, entrepreneurship, people and possibilities.
Contact dave@thatsocialagency.com if you fancy a chat!
Originally published at www.thatsocialagency.com
