When building anything, you should always start off with a strategy and action plan. After all, you wouldn’t build a hotel from the ground up without a blueprint first, would you? When it comes to deciding how to structure your website, it’s easy to get lost in “best practices” and “top trends”. In reality, what you want to do is to select a template that packages your hotel in the best way possible.
It’s wise to start by clarifying and planning what content to display as well as your main goals and CTAs. When it comes time to choose a template, you’ll have to decide on either a single-page or a multi-page template. To help you make this decision, we’ve shared a breakdown of everything you need to know on whether your hotel would benefit from a single or multi-page website.
What is a single-page website and when should you use one?
Single-page websites have more recently been on the rise, and for good reason. They’re often more visually appealing and impressively designed with full-width images and useful information on one easy-to-navigate page. Clean, easy, and modern. A single-page design removes unnecessary noise from the page, allowing the user to focus on the most important content.
A single-page site’s main purpose is to provide essential information to visitors and give clear direction on what actions they should take. This creates a funnel to convert website visitors quickly and efficiently. The straightforward and no-nonsense approach allows your visitors to begin the journey right away and move through quickly without distraction. Storytelling by using stunning visuals and concise language helps you communicate clearly with potential guests and motivate them to book.
Do you have a small to medium-sized hotel? In that case, a seamless single-page website can take your visitors on a journey and share the information they need.
Advantages of a single-page website
First and foremost, the biggest advantage of a single-page website is how simple they are to set up. Without pages and pages of content to populate, a high-quality single-page website can be up and running quickly—including a mobile responsive version. Worldwide, consumers are opting to use their phones to make purchases at a rapid rate these days. With more than half of online visitors using mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website is crucial. Luckily, single-page websites are perfectly designed for screen responsiveness and mobile-first design.
The beauty of the single-page website is that visitors only need to open one screen and either click or scroll. Using menu “anchors”, visitors can click at the top of their screen and quickly navigate to different destinations of your website. Alternatively, they can easily scroll down to get to different sections of the site. Extra information can be added with overlays as well, rather than additional pages. The entire experience is linear and intuitive with a clear flow from beginning to end.
Not only does the single-page template keep visitors from getting distracted or confused by additional content, but it also guides them through the site and directs them to book. An A/B test conducted by Highrise saw an increase in conversion rate by 37.5% when switching from a multi-page version of a website to a single page.
Explore one of our single-page website template in Hotelchamp eCommerce ›
What are the disadvantages of a single-page website?
With all its very simplistic benefits, the one main disadvantage of having a single-page website is the lack of SEO. Being a single page, there is only one URL address for Google to display in search results. Not only that, but a limit to the content you can share on your website can affect your SEO ranking and your website’s visibility on search engines. Fortunately, there are some easy workarounds around this as outlined in the video below. Strategically pairing these tips with back-linking strategies can give your website a higher authority ranking on Google.
Another disadvantage that can occur if your single-page website is not set up properly is a higher bounce rate. This typically happens when a website takes too long to load. According to research by Google, 53% of website visitors will abandon a page if it fails to load within 3 seconds. Even Amazon found that 100 milliseconds of delay cost them 1% in sales. It doesn’t seem like much until you remember it’s Amazon we’re talking about.
This is more likely to happen on a single-page website because all of your content, especially photo, video, and other graphics, load on the page all at once. Fortunately, there is a workaround for this issue as well. With Hotelchamp eCommerce, your site is optimised for Google Page Speed and images are automatically resized to reduce loading time.
What is a multi-page website and when should you use one?
Multi-page websites consist of many different pages and subpages. A multi-page structure is a traditional way to build a hotel website or any website for that matter. Because it’s been around for so many years, most people are familiar with navigating through menus as well as search bars.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put effort into your website’s navigation strategy. In fact, it makes your strategy all the more important. When your website’s navigation is easily understandable, you’ll have higher conversions and visitors spending more time on your website because they can easily find the things they are looking for.
If your hotel has multiple properties, a plethora of amenities you’d like to feature or even a blog, a multi-page website will be better for you than a single-page structure.
What are the advantages of a multi-page website?
The best thing about a website with a multi-page design is the opportunity to scale. With a reliable structure already set in place, you can add an unlimited amount of new content as well as new pages. A big advantage for the multi-page website is that there is no limitation on text, images or videos. Not only does this allow you more freedom to share new information with your visitors, but it also gives you more control over your SEO optimisation efforts.
If you decide to move forward with a multi-page website, challenge yourself to come up with new, exciting, and quality content that your past guests, potential customers, and your general audience will love and hopefully share.
What are the disadvantages of a multi-page website?
Having more content on your hotel website may help your SEO, but it can also be distracting to a new visitor. When potential guests land on your website, they want to be directed on where to go. You could lose their trust very quickly if this isn’t clear because the design is overwhelming or there is too much text.
This is especially true for mobile users. Take the time to think through your website’s architecture. This is a necessary time investment in making sure your website is optimised. With Hotelchamp eCommerce, your website will always be optimised for mobile, without you needing to do anything. Your website visitors will always have the best experience.
Committing to a multi-page website also requires more time as it’s necessary to continue to add new content and update information. The more content there is on the website, the more work is needed to make sure it is current and relevant. Choosing to go with a multi-page site is a bigger commitment in time and resources.
Deciding on a website structure
Your hotel website should be designed to offer the best possible experience for your target audience. By taking a content-first approach to your website strategy, you’ll be saving on so much stress in the long run.
If you can fit everything into a single page and craft it into a compelling story, then you probably don’t need much more than that. If you know that you need to separate a lot of information for your audience to access easily and quickly, use a multi-page site.
Whether your hotel’s website is built as a single page or a multi-page site, some things will always stay true. Visitors don’t always read, so it’s important to try to keep your messaging simple and clear. The first impression a user has when arriving on a landing page always counts. Make sure you are taking the time to include quality visuals and a clear path to conversion.
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