Before deciding how many pages to commission, write down what a potential customer needs to know. Page count follows the content. It also affects how much material needs to be written, approved and kept up to date.
Start with the offer and the next step
A focused service can often be explained in one reading sequence: what it is, who it's for, evidence that you can deliver it, and how to get in touch. A visitor shouldn't need to open several pages just to understand a straightforward purchase.
For Advanced Sales Training, I designed the brand and built a one-page website. The page brings the training approach and offer together. Its case study shows the work that went into making that focused site feel specific to the business.
That's an example of scope, not a claim that one-page sites convert better. The right structure depends on what a visitor needs to decide.
Give substantial questions their own space
A separate page earns its place when it answers a question well enough to stand alone. That might be a service with its own audience, a detailed project, or an article somebody wants to share with a colleague.
My own portfolio uses a short homepage and separate case studies. The homepage helps someone decide whether the work is relevant. Each case then has room for the brief, design decisions and supporting screens. Putting all of that on the homepage would make the initial read much longer.
The interactive canvas is another way to explore the work, while the cases are also available as ordinary readable pages. The content has to make sense without learning the canvas controls.
Try this before asking for a quote
Write a short answer to each of these:
- Who is the main reader, and what are they trying to decide?
- What do they need to see before they contact you?
- Which services need a substantially different explanation?
- What evidence do you already have permission to publish?
- Who will keep the content current after launch?
Then place the answers in a rough reading order. If they form one clear explanation, a single page is a reasonable starting point. If the outline keeps branching into different audiences or long supporting material, sketch those as separate pages.
A page heading needs something useful beneath it. Separate Services, About and Work pages each need useful content and someone to keep it current. On a small site, a concise section may answer the question more clearly.
Make search part of the content decision
Separate URLs let you give substantial topics their own titles and descriptions, and let people link directly to those explanations. They don't create useful content by themselves.
Google's SEO Starter Guide recommends logical organisation, descriptive titles and links that help readers and search engines understand a site. Those principles apply to either structure. A long list of thin pages isn't a substitute for answering the visitor's question.
Start with the subjects you can explain properly. Once the site has search data, use the actual queries and landing pages to decide what needs a fuller answer.
Agree what the website includes
“A one-page website” still leaves a lot undefined. It might need a new identity, photography, copy written from interviews, or an integration with an existing system. Those choices can matter more to the work than the number of pages.
For a useful quote, agree the content and its owner, the design review points, and how enquiries will work. Name the files and guidance you'll receive at handover. Hosting costs, ongoing edits and any external services should also be clear before the build starts.
You can keep the first launch focused and add pages when there's enough material to justify them. The initial structure should leave room for that, without commissioning a large site on the assumption that the content will appear later.
If you're planning a site, send me what the business does, who needs to understand it and what you already have. We can work out a sensible scope from there.