Should I switch to a long scroll website design?

The homepage is typically the most visited page on a website. So to have an ineffective homepage design would be rather problematic for your business. If you’re signed up to our Digital Dash newsletter, you’ll see that our team has been dishing out long scroll website designs like they are going out of fashion. But it’s actually quite the opposite …

Why have long scroll website designs suddenly become so popular?

There are two options a web designer must decide between when building a homepage:

1. A short, all-in-one-screen

OR

1. A long scroll homepage

This isn’t a decision designers take lightly. The homepage plays a crucial role in a website’s overall purpose; to show the user why they can’t live without you until they have no choice but to perform your desired call-to-action (CTA) – success!

But if your homepage design is out of whack, your online business is in trouble.

Don’t worry. If you’re stuck on whether to go short or go long with your homepage, you’ve come to the right place.

To scroll or stay stagnant?

Firstly, let’s get our honest, and perhaps slightly ill-mannered, opinion out into the open. Clumpy one-page homepages are sooooo last week. Sorry, but it’s true.

Back in the day when MySpace and MSN were rampant, web designers feared that any hidden content sitting outside of the first desktop screen, otherwise known as ‘below the fold’, would easily be missed. This old-fashioned style of thinking led to homepages being built to fit neatly into one-screen desktop.

But this is 2018.

Nowadays, most people visit websites on mobile devices. They don’t expect to see everything at once because they are used to scrolling through newsfeeds, articles and unending webpages on small screens.

If you try to create a homepage where everything can be viewed on a one-screen desktop, you won’t likely succeed on a mobile device. Chances are your website visitors will have to scroll ‘below the fold’ anyway, so you might as well do this purposefully.

Furthermore, most modern mobile devices, whether that be a phone or tablet, have inbuilt functions to make scrolling seamless – even laptops have track pads. Having everything there for your reader on one long page makes your content easy to access and navigate. Internet users are essentially accustomed to scrolling for more content. In fact, it kind of feels weird not to!

But let’s keep the debate fair here. If your particular business doesn’t require a lot of content, information or storytelling, then a short homepage might be the one for you.

Speaking of storytelling …

Take your customer on a journey

A large number of website visitors will never even go past your homepage. But with the right design, they won’t have to.

Remember at the beginning I mentioned homepages should serve a purpose? A smooth scrolling homepage can act as a story, taking your website visitors on a captivating journey towards the ultimate final destination at the bottom – your CTA. Plus, everyone loves a good story.

Lengthy homepages enable businesses to show their audience what they’re all about, spark curiosity and guide them towards the end goal. If you’re online business’s performance has been a little flat and you’re looking for ways to keep the ball scrollin’, get in touch with our design team!

P.s. the majority of top performing websites nowadays are long scroll website designs. Just saying.