Do you sell one thing or several?
One clear offer with one price fits a landing page. Several services, each with its own questions and price, need a page per service so people can find and read the one they care about.
Guide — Web design
Landing page or full website? ✦
One page is not a smaller version of a website. It is a different tool for a different job, and the choice depends on how many decisions your customer has to make.
/ The decision
Four questions that answer it
If you can answer these four, the format is usually obvious.
How do people look for you?
If they search a specific service, or compare before contacting you, they need somewhere to land. A full site gives each search its own page; a single page answers only one.
How many people have to approve it?
A landing page is faster to write, design and publish, and easier to test. A full site takes longer but gives you room to grow without rebuilding.
Are you buying traffic?
Paid campaigns need a page that matches the promise of the ad and removes distractions. That is often a landing page, even when you already have a website behind it.
/ The full picture
What each format is good at
A landing page is one argument, start to finish: the problem, the offer, proof, price range, contact. It is the right answer when the visitor already knows what they want and only needs a reason to choose you.
A full website is a map. It answers different searches with different pages, explains who you are, and gives returning visitors a place to look for details: services, team, location, hours, policies.
Many businesses need both, in that order. A landing page for the campaign that pays for itself, and a website that holds the rest of the information and grows with the catalogue.
The trap is copying a competitor's structure. If their site is long, it is because of how their customers buy, not because long is better. Start from your own questions and answers.
/ Common mistake
What usually goes wrong
Three failures we see often, and the cheaper way out.
A landing page with everything on it
Trying to fit services, prices, team and blog into one page produces a wall of text nobody reads. Cut it, or split it into pages.
A website built before the offer is clear
Ten pages that repeat the same vague promise will not help anyone decide. Fix the message first; the structure follows.
Buying traffic to the homepage
Sending ads to a menu of options makes the visitor choose twice. Send them to the page that matches the ad.
Measuring nothing
Without analytics you cannot tell whether the page or the campaign is the problem. Set up the tracking before spending on media.
/ Keep reading
Read next
More notes on web design decisions that change the result.
Guide
What moves the cost of a website
Pages, copy, languages, integrations: what changes the number and why.
CaseGuardabarranco Travels
Destination pages separated by product, each with its own requirements.
GuideHow to choose a web designer
The questions that separate a serious proposal from a cheap one.
Usually, because there are fewer pages to write, design and review. The scope is what decides it: a landing page with a custom design and campaign tracking is a different job from a five-page site on your existing brand.
Yes, if it is built to grow. That means clean structure, consistent design and content you can extend page by page instead of rebuilding from scratch.
Only if you will publish. An empty blog is worse than no blog: it suggests nobody is home. If you want to answer recurring questions, articles are a good place to do it consistently.
The smallest thing that answers how your customers buy. For some it is a single page; for others, a site with a page per service. The proposal should say why, and it should be based on your business, not on a template.
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