By Artem Korsakov ·
In short: A landing page suits a company with one offer and one main visitor action. A multi-page website is needed if services are bought by different people for different reasons or the visitor needs to choose and compare. The number of pages is determined by the material you can fill them with. Before deciding, compare how a new service would be added in each option.
A landing page or a multi-page website should be chosen based on how the buyer looks for a service and makes a decision. A company can fit all its services on one page, but it is not always convenient for the visitor to go through them one after another. The opposite also happens: a large website is created for a single offer and there is nothing meaningful to fill it with.
When one page is enough
A landing page suits one clear offer and one main action. For example, a hypothetical company launches on-site equipment diagnostics in a particular city. The visitor needs to understand the terms, be convinced of the contractor’s competence and send a request. There may be no long catalog or several independent selection paths here.
On one page it is convenient to reveal the problem, the content of the service, the work process and answers to questions in sequence. But “one” does not mean “short”. It is important that the sections help make one decision. There is no need to list everything the company has ever done.
When visitors need different entry points
A multi-page website is useful when a company sells several independent services. Each may have its own audience, terms and set of proof. For example, equipment servicing and equipment supply are related but involve different questions before purchase.
Separate pages let you take a person straight to the right offer. A procurement specialist can be sent a link to supply, a technical director to servicing. You do not have to ask everyone to look for their section among all the company’s business lines.
Another reason for several pages: many projects, products or materials. Here the visitor chooses and compares items. Navigation becomes part of the product and requires separate attention.
Don’t choose the format only by advertising or search
The phrase “a landing page for advertising, a large site for search” oversimplifies the task. An ad can lead to a specific service page inside a large website. A one-page site can also be visible in search, but it is harder for it to fully cover many different topics without overload.
To plan promotion, put together groups of buyers’ questions. If the questions concern one service and one decision, one page may be enough. If people look for different types of work, equipment or terms, you need independent pages with real content. Their number is determined by the material you can fill them with.
A large number of pages does not in itself ensure visibility. Empty sections with only the city name swapped do not help a person choose a contractor. What matters more is a useful answer and a clear connection to the company’s offer.
Compare the upkeep of the two options
A large website needs someone responsible for keeping services, staff, projects and documents up to date. If the owner has nothing to put in the sections, a complex structure becomes a burden. A one-page version is easier to maintain as long as the offer remains unified.
At the same time, an overloaded landing page can also be expensive to change. When dozens of services and different promotions are mixed on it, any addition breaks the sequence. Sometimes several short pages are easier to manage than one very long one. How the format affects the budget is covered in the article “How much does a business website cost”.
Ask the contractor to show a typical change in both options. For example, how an employee will add a new service and how a visitor will find it from a phone. Such an example is clearer than an abstract argument about formats.
Decide based on the immediate task
Describe what needs to be sold now and which business lines will appear later. Separate the mandatory pages from future ideas. How to describe this to a contractor without a technical specification is explained in a separate article. For a hypothetical new business line, a landing page may be a sensible first stage, while for an established supplier with a catalog such a start would require too many workarounds.
Look at the landing page demo in the trike_dev catalog and compare it with your buyer’s path. When discussing a project, it is more useful to bring examples of real inquiries and the content of your offers than to decide on the number of pages in advance.
Частые вопросы ### Can you start with a landing page and expand the website later?
Yes, if you discuss the domain, the editor, future sections and content migration in advance. The expansion itself will require work: pages are not added automatically when you buy the first option.
Does a company with three services need a large website?
The number alone decides nothing. If the services are bought by different people for different reasons, separate pages are justified. If they are parts of one service, they can be presented together.