Sometimes, a small business has a long-term or temporary need for a simple, often one-page website and is not ready to acquire their own domain name yet. Often the business just needs more time and money and needs something up immediately.

That a small business needs a website is indisputable. Almost any business imaginable needs to be found on the web, at the very least.

So, if you don’t have your own website yet, why create at least a one page “site” under a reputable domain?

• Credibility, customer confidence: Think about it… if you are a prospective, web-savvy customer who just learned about a business, but can find absolutely nothing, or just a small bit some unconnected website has indexed, how would you feel? Does not finding any record of the business make you want to buy their products or services?
• Control your information/image: Almost any business, if it’s been around a while will be picked up by internet bots, maybe discussed on forums, etc.. These random and incomplete pages are likely to be the first thing a prospective customer finds, if you don’t have at least a basic web page yourself. Even with a one-page site, you stand a better chance of make a positive impression. while nobody can guarantee what the search engines will rank highest, it’s very likely that a developed one-page site will rank first, above other more limited mentions by websites that automatically accumulate business information.
• Buys you some time: A simple, one-page site gives you the time to plan a full-fledged website or to generate enough revenue to pay for the development. Now, do be aware that a skilled and experienced web developer can create a very functional and satisfactory website far cheaper than a decade ago, due to software, technology advances and wonderful new ideas and approaches that have evolved along the way.
• Link or forward to your new website: If or when you do get another website, you can either link to it from this one-page site or set it to automatically-forward to your new website. Once you get a new website, it may be useful to keep your one-page site also for possible search engine optimization (SEO) reasons.

One-page or simple websites on a shared domain is not new. By the late 90s’, sites like Yahoo GeoCities (now discontinued, unfortunately), and many others, offered web space for business, personal or group usage. The idea still has it’s place, and we hope to do it a better, by taking it more seriously and providing helpful related services, may of them free.

So, there you have it. When developing a one-page site, another advantage is that, being simpler, it’s easier to focus on making the best possible message and presentation possible, as opposed to a large, complex website. But then those new technologies and techniques make even maintain a large website a much easier effort!