Do I need a One-Page Website?
For many of my design clients launching a new business or in the early stages of testing out a new product or idea, a full website is simply too much for their current needs or daunting to create when they have limited content starting out.
A One Page Website condenses and highlights all the critical information to connect potential clients with your brand, service or product without the ‘excess’ that a full website can sometimes feel like.
For many of my design clients, launching a new business or in the early stages of testing out a new product or idea, a full website is simply too much for their current needs or daunting to create when they have limited content starting out.
A One Page Website condenses and highlights all the critical information to connect potential clients with your brand, service or product without the ‘excess’ that a full website can sometimes feel like.
A single page website design allows you to control how users experience your web page as a sequential story as they scroll down and gather more information.
All your information is positioned in a specific order, making it easier for your audience to navigate and find what they need to know when they interact with your brand. It’s easy to scroll through and doesn’t take much time to find what they’re looking for.
Single page sites are great at quickly communicating the value of a product, brand, or service and will lead to a clear ‘call to action’ to help clients take the next steps in their journey with you.
Another great thing about a single-page website is that it's very compatible with mobile viewing, which so many of us do these days. We are already used to long-form scrolling and there is no need for jumping around finding things in a menu bar on a small screen.
Let’s Future proof…
But what if later I want more than the one page?
I hear you.
A One Page Website might be a good fit now, but what about later down the line, when your business has grown and evolved, or you have more content that you want to share?
I’ve got you covered, by future proofing for expansion.
The way I approach One Page Websites also makes it very easy for streamlined future expansion, and in fact I specifically build that into my website design strategy.
So you can easily expand your existing site to a multi-page layout in the future (either DIY or with the help of a designer) and I guide you through that process too.
I allow for this easy expansion by considering each section of the single page as a mini version of the standard main pages. For example:
A standard website is often based on a ‘five page’ layout:
Home
About
Services/Product
Blog/News
Contact
The single scrolling home page would contain the main landing welcome banner followed by a succinct section for each of the page themes above.
As there will be no dedicated blog page, this could either be omitted or linked to articles you’ve published elsewhere or to social media posts. Similarly, for a shop of gallery.
In the future, if your needs change and you decide that you would like to expand the single page site to become a full five (or more) page site, you can simple create the additional pages with more in depth content expanding upon the summary sections on the homepage. You’d then have a link from each section to the relevant page as well as being listed in the top menu bar.
It’s a very organic and natural expansion process.
Here is what I consider One Page Websites best suited to:
New businesses with minimal content or looking for a simple streamlined approach.
The fast launch of an initial website with a view to add additional content later down the line.
Those testing out a new project idea or in the early stages of a new venture.
A singular product or event launch.
A secondary website for a side hustle or additional arm of a main business.
A hub or homepage that brings together and links multiple aspects and external platforms.
It’s cost effective!
As an additional benefit, it goes with out saying that from a financial point of view, a one-page site is typically much cheaper to commission a designer to build. The timeframe for completion is often significantly faster too!
I offer One Page Website design as part of my Design Day approach.
So what are the downsides?
A One Page website won’t be suited to everyone or every purpose. Whilst I believe it can suit many business needs, particularly given the easy expandable nature of the design, here are some things to consider to understand whether a single page or a multi-page is the best fit for you.
A One Page Website is not best suited to blog-centered websites that plan to have a lot of content by way of written articles, galleries, videos etc.
It won’t be suited if you know you need to have multiple products or services or an extensive shop built into the platform itself and not linked externally.
It may not be a good fit if you are a business that has multiple strands to what you offer, as there is only so much information that you can put onto one page before it becomes overwhelming for your site visitors. In this case a multi-page site is a better option.
On the other hand, you may decided to create a single page ‘hub’ with external links to all the things you offer - for example Facebook group/page, secondary websites, online shops or profiles on a specific platforms.
Another point to note is that single-page websites can be challenging to optimize for SEO (search engine optimisation) because there’s far less content compared to a full-size website and so Google wont be able to pick up on keywords so well.
I consider a single page website more of an online portfolio and you would focus on driving traffic to it by your own efforts rather than relying on google searches, which personally I would suggest is the main focus regardless.
Are you considering a new website?
Has this helped you better understand the options and what your needs would be best suited to?
If you’d like to explore the concept of a One Page Website with built in future expansion further with me, I’d be more than happy to chat. You can find more info on the process here.
Get in touch via email or drop me a text of voice note via Voxer @johodson
Product Photography To Build A Trustworthy Brand
I love photography!
But when I first began food blogging back in 2011, my photography left a lot to be desired.
Yet, before long, simply through trial and error of sharing recipes multiple times a week and 100’s over the course of a few years my photography improved dramatically.
I have since developed and photographed recipes for multiple brands.
But it’s not just food, many friends and colleagues have enlisted my skills to shoot their products - from candles to stationery (and on occasion their brand and headshots too!)
The part of photography I love the most is the layout and styling way more than the tech and editing… which is good news for you as you don’t require expensive camera kit of editing software to set up a great shot.
That’s not to say those things wont help too (they definitely will) but they are no means essential and I promise you, you can take great shots of your products simply with a phone and very basic in-app editing.
Whilst shooting food is my first love, there is a huge overlap with the skills required to shoot a plate of food and shoot a small product (we’re taking things that fit on a table top rather than something large like a vehicle)
Styling ‘lifestyle’ photos tell a story of the product, whereas product photography (for example for a commercial product listing) is typically a simple clean photo on a white background. Both can be important to know how to capture well and have very different purposes in your sales and promotional materials.
Very simple shooting set up.
Engaging photography is a key part of building a trustworthy brand.
They say a picture speaks a 1000 words. So it’s critical that your website imagery and promotional graphics are always working hard to deliver your message and story to sell your products.
However, a professional product brand shoot is often beyond the scope of a new business.
Or it may be that you are in the early stages of evolving your style or product collection and forking out for professional shots is not practical or desirable as this early stage.
Maybe you have an ongoing catalogue of products that you need to be able to shoot yourself, or you want to capture a variety of high quality images for social media.
Photography can be overwhelming.
So It helps to know what kind of shot you need for what purpose…
Let’s break it down, so you can decide where you want to put your attention. If you feel like you could do with some more assistance, take a look at my new training - we go into each of these elements (and a whole lot more) in much greater detail.
White background photos
The white background product shot is more common than any other background, primarily because it’s so versatile. It creates a ‘knockout’ of the product where it appears to be floating on the background. This can be captured in camera against a well lit white background, or in post-production using an editing app to remove the original background and replace it with a white backdrop.
White background shots are typically used for listings in online stores and catalogs and can also be useful for promotional shots where you want to include text in the image.
Multi-product group shots
These can also be white background, and most often used for product kits and to showcase collections of similar products. Group photography displays the variety of your products and gives the customer a more complete and contextual view of your range.
These types of images are great for social media posts and advertisements, as they give shoppers a taste of your brand as a whole, rather than just one product in isolation.
Flat-lays
These are a common photography technique due to the quick setup and pleasing aesthetic. Flat lays often work well for lifestyle shots and to create visual variety in the shot for social media.
The camera angle is from directly above looking down. It allows you to position each product and any associated styling elements as desired. It’s also useful if shooting with a phone that can have a tendency to distort the perspective of a shot taken from an angle.
What can be lacking with the flat-lay approach is the three-dimensional appearance of the item(s) itself.
Lifestyle photos
This is where you show your products in context to demonstrate the product used in the way it’s designed for. Lifestyle shots help tell the story behind your product and illustrate to your customers how they can use them in their daily lives.
They’re also perfect for social media and promotions because they catch the eye and make your products feel more personal to a potential customer.
For a sense of scale, lifestyle shots can help your customers get a better idea of the actual size of a product by comparing it with other everyday items in the shot. This will increase their confidence when purchasing online as they can visualise the product in use.
Detail photos
Best used for products with small intricacies or textures that require a close-up e.g jewellery or embellishments and other small items. Detailed shots help highlight specific product features that a zoomed out of the whole context photo might not capture well enough.
When shooting details, pay attention to quality of light, focus and depth of field (how much of the product is in focus) to ensure the details are showcased to its full potential.
Packaging photos
From browsing your website to making a purchase and receiving their product in the post, customers are looking for a shopping experience from start to finish. You may have a wonderful product, but the presentation and packaging also matters too.
If your products come with beautiful looking, branded packaging, make sure you capture it to give your customers a taste of what to expect as the full experience.
What do you need to focus on focus on first?
Or where are you struggling?
When it comes to lifestyle shots you may find that the photos you customers tag you in on social media could be repurposed (with permission where necessary).
Sometimes all it takes is cropping the image to create the best balanced composition, a tweak to increase the brightness and a little extra saturation to make the colours pop.
Think outside the box and repurpose as many images as you can to help save time and money.
Want to know more?
I bring you Product Photography Like A Pro. A 60 minute training that gives you the insights and techniques to shoot your own high quality product imagery, lifestyle shots and promotional graphics… easily, with no special tools or equipment.
Make sure you are representing your brand and products to their full potential!
Who am I and why can I help you?
I’m Jo Hodson. I've been shooting food and product photography for brands, my blog and my biz for almost 10 years.
I am a blogger, health food business owner and website designer so I have the huge advantage of seeing behind-the-scenes from all angles.
When it comes to photography for your website, products and brand I like to keep things simple, tech free... and a lot of fun!
After this masterclass you'll come away with new ideas, insights and strategies to apply to all your website and social media imagery without needing to understand any special tech or complex camera settings. So, whether you shoot with a phone or a dSLR this masterclass is designed for you!
Use the power of your voice to write copy faster and more authentically
I've been using the process of voice recording to write copy for my website, blog posts, articles and longer form social media content for quite some time now.
A few years in fact.
Not only do I love it because it's a faster process compared with sitting down to type, but there are some more subtle but equally, if not more, significant reasons why using your voice to write your copy is so powerful.
Here are my top six reasons to start using your voice to write your copy.
(p.s. Case in point... I 'wrote' this blog as a recorded audio note whilst sitting on a blanket in the sun in my garden. Then edited the transcript ready to publish in a just few mins later on in the evening.)
1) No pre-editing.
When you sit down to write with a pen or to type on your keyboard. The speed at which you type is much slower than the speed at which you think and therefore, by that very nature you pre-edit the words you type n the page.
Whilst this might not seem like a negative thing, the problem is that we're not consciously choosing or aware of what we're pre-editing out, so many of the gems of wisdom can be lost.
Whereas if you use a method of voice recording, to simply speak into the world those thoughts in your head on whatever particular topic, you are able to capture everything that comes into your mind without judgment or expectation and most importantly without pre-editing.
As you listen back to you audio or read through the transcript, and work through words on your page to tidy and pull them into shape, you can be sure that you won't miss out those gems of wisdom that would never have shown up, if I hadn't been for the voice recording process.
2) Whenever, wherever.
Often when I'm recording voice notes, I might have an idea land when I'm out on a walk or when I've just parked up in my car and I'm about to go into an appointment. I probably wouldn't have my notebook or laptop with me and likely very little time. But I've got my phone and with it the ability to record voice notes.
The amount of words that you can speak into a phone in just one minute would take many more minutes of the equivalent time to write down, even if you did have access to your keyboard in those spontaneous random moments when your idea just popped up. So recording voice notes allows you to fully capture those 'aha moments', wherever you might be.
3) Greater context for later recall.
Off the back of my last point, often I'm not in a position to do anything with that thought right there and then so if I scribble something down on a notepad usually it's just a few phrases or a sentence at most, simply because I haven't got time to express much more than that.
Yet, when I come back to the note a couple of days, a week or sometimes a month later, those words often don't mean anything to me anymore.
Whereas, if I capture those words in an audio note, not only can I capture more context in those few seconds, I can also re-immerse myself in the energy of my, voice so if there's something I was excited about, I can hear that excitement. It's much more likely I'll be able to tap back into the energy and take action from that place. This is something I would miss entirely with a quick handwritten phrase scribbled on a notepad.
4) A heart-centered approach.
With practice, voice recorded notes are very much a heart-centered 'channelling' process. There's not really any thinking involved. You are literally speaking the words out loud as they come through. It's like a stream of consciousness process, not something we usually do for copywriting - where our brains get highly involved.
So, by just allowing the words to roll off your tongue, you capture things in a very authentic, honest and heart-centred way. Not tainted with and 'rules and expectations' of writing or your industry standards or audience, that during the traditional writing process can make our words sound very generic if we are not aware.
5) Overcome the overwhelm of a blank canvas.
When we sit down to write, knowing where to start can sometimes be overwhelming.
So avoid that and just start talking. It doesn't matter what you say, just start talking absolute waffle if you like - give yourself that permission! It might take a few minutes to settle and get going, but when you find your flow and you can feel the shift. You know when you're tapping into the good stuff.
So then when it comes to listening back or when you come to edit the transcript, you can skip the first few waffly minutes because you knew that was just you warming up and getting started. Jump ahead to where the good stuff starts flowing and work from there.
6) Make it easier for your team.
Sometimes you might not be doing all the copywriting/editing yourself, you may have a team that works with you. For example, you have a social media manager, or maybe as someone who compiles blog posts for your business.
If you speak the essence of that you want to capture into a voice recording, your colleagues can pick up on that energy more directly. This can impact how words are laid down a page, such as where you might decide to use different headings depending on how important that particular sentence was - your voice will dictate that. That tonal quality does not translate in written notes alone.
So if you do have others on your team that work from your copy, giving them something to work with that's multi-dimensional, that's got texture from your voice can be so much more helpful in translating your intentions.
Whether you already use voice recording in your own process or this is the first time you have considered it in this way, I hope this has given you plenty of new food for thought to put onto practice!
Join me for a live training of my process!
I would also love to invite you to explore this further with me as part of a live training I am hosting next Tuesday 11th August at 7:30pm BST (recording also available if you can't make it live) - we'll explore the specific processes I work through for myself and with my clients and the various ways this can be used for multiple aspects of you business copy creation strategy.
Launching... Coach On Call!
I officially launched a new service last week... did you see it ? :-)
Well, technically it's two new services:
✨ 'Coach On Call' for wellness business owners looking for support in elevating their business.
✨ 'Health Coach On Call' for those looking for support to elevate their personal health and wellness.
When I was initially putting together the copy for the Coach On Call pages. I realised it was very difficult to describe the impact of something that for most people would be an entirely new experience.
I knew this firsthand because the clients I trialled the process with, with whom I'd shared the description on my draft sales page, admitted to me that they hadn't really understood what the point of it was initially.
Yet, by the end of their day working with me in this way, they were filled with so much excitement about how incredible the process had worked out for them.
(Listen to the audio below that shares real-time client voice notes on what the process meant for them, these notes weren’t promoted by me and I only thought to put this audio reel together in retrospect in case it could be helpful for others).
“I've never done anything like this before. This has been absolutely brilliant to focus on my business whilst letting life carry on. I'm still present at home whilst processing ideas and working on my business.” - Linda Goodchild (Creator of the Healthcare Companion)
“Working with Jo for the day was phenomenal. My head was full of procrastination because I really couldn’t see how I was going to move forward. Just having a place to share my ideas and thoughts allowed me to see the step past the ideas. This process has helped me identify my next steps and take action where I once felt overwhelm”. - JuJu O’reilly (Health Food Business Founder)
To put this new service in even greater context, I’m sharing with you my thoughts on what I think the four most powerful aspects of this process are, and why...
1) You don't need to carve out an uninterrupted hour or two.
This is a very different process from what I would traditionally call a 'Power Hour' where we thrash out what it is you're struggling with over the course of an hour. While those sessions can be amazing, this is an opportunity to have a back and forth conversation over the course of a day. These are snippets of time within a much larger timeframe. Life will be happening alongside.
2) There's no pressure.
You won't feel put on the spot, there's no need to come up with answers in the moment. There's zero pressure. This works both ways. I can serve you more powerfully When I don't feel pressure to respond on the spot. It creates much greater opportunity to really think and reflect on what it is that is being shared.
There is no video, so you don't need to do your hair or your makeup. You can even wear your pyjamas if you want to!
This is a very non-pressured and very gentle process. But don't be fooled we'll be digging deep.
I actually think that when you're not 'live' in front of someone, subconsciously the mental barriers drop away and you can actually allow yourself to be immersed in the process more deeply that you would have otherwise. It's a fascinating process.
3) Action-taking is built into this process.
In a traditional 'power hour' or 'discovery session' a lot of the action taking is hypothetical because we're talking through the things you will do after the session ends.
The problem I find with this is that whilst you're in a high energy mode in the moment whilst we're talking and generating ideas, as soon as the call ends and life takes hold and distracts you away, inevitably, the moment drifts.
Maybe the confidence drops. Maybe the clarity or the vision is lost. When hours or days later you look at your notes, you can't recall what they meant anymore.
During Coach On Call, action taking and conversation take place in the moment, all day long.
4) There is time for reflection and processing.
There is time to process and reflect on what is most meaningful to you, how it feels for you, how things are shifting.
Maybe in the middle of the day, you need to make the kids lunch or take the dog for a walk. All these pockets of time during the day when you don't feel as though you're actively working on your business or your project, is all golden time for assimilating information to process where you're at.
That reflection and processing aspect is lost a Power Hour, simply because there's not physically time for it.
So this is a very experiential and very immersive process.
So the fact that…
You don't have to carve out a big chunk of time.
There is no pressure.
Action-taking is inherently part of the process.
There is time to reflect and process everything we're discussing in real-time
…Makes this a really unique and really powerful opportunity to work together.
Feeling curious but still not sure?
I invite you to add me on Voxer (johodson), send me a message via voice or text and i’ll happily gift you a free 15 minute taster session to answer any questions, give you some quick-fire support or simply so you can get a taster of how it could work on the day!
