You may not have heard of single page applications (SPA) before, but you definitely know some examples of them!
Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Twitter, Gmail, Google Maps… these are all examples of SPAs.
At Blaze Media, our web design team can work with you to decide on whether an SPA would be right for your business and then build you a bespoke site from the ground up.
Read on for more info on just what an SPA is and what benefits they could bring to your business, and then get in touch if you think it sounds right for you!
What are single page applications?
An SPA is a type of application that works within your browser that doesn’t need to fully refresh your browser while being used.
The best way to explain is probably with an example. So if you think about how, when you use Facebook, everything loads and updates seamlessly without you having to wait for a few seconds while your whole browser refreshes. You can keep scrolling down and new posts will load, or you can return to the top and see any brand-new posts.
That’s what an SPA is. And you don’t need to be a massive business such as Facebook or Amazon to make use of them, SPAs can be used by anyone as long as it makes sense for their business.
And because page speed is part of Google’s Core Web Vitals for page experience, having a faster site is able to boost your performance on Google’s search pages.
Why are single page applications popular?
SPAs have become so popular with users without them even really realising it!
With the way that web development has advanced over the years, SPAs have become the natural progression for certain sites.
It means that business can create super-speedy websites which greatly improve the user experience. And when users have a better experience, they’re more likely to follow through the sales funnel and become a conversion.
Could you imagine how painstaking it would be using Amazon if the whole page was constantly refreshing whenever you clicked on anything?
On top of this, they’re relatively easy to set up and maintain. While it’s not quite as simple as some of the best WordPress page builders out there, devs can set up your SPA without spending too much time writing and testing code, and can debug your site quicker than a traditional multi-page application (MPA) by using Chrome.
How do single page applications work?
An SPA will load all necessary information when a page is first launched and then when the user makes any changes, the SPA can subtly rewrite the page with the information it already has rather than wait to load all the information again.
This can be a great boon to your website layout as you can have highly reactive elements on your page that can be updated at the click of a button without having to reload the entire page.
Frameworks for single page applications
Not all SPAs are built the same.
Developers will have a toolbox of frameworks at their disposal that they can use when building SPAs and some tools are better than others for certain tasks.
When you come to Blaze Media for your web development, our devs will have a chat with you to learn all about your business, how it works, and what your goals are.
They can then plan the development of your website and, if you’re going for an SPA, what frameworks they’ll use to put your site together.
Each framework has unique pros and cons based on all of the key factors when putting together a site like user interface, functionality, routing, and components.
For example, React (a type of JavaScript) has great functionality and straightforward user interface features but doesn’t handle routing well directly.
Ember (another type of JavaScript) is less functional and straightforward, but is a powerful routing tool and allows for two-way data binding.
Looking for a single page application agency?
If you think that a single page application sounds like it could be for you, or if you just want to find out more about them, then get in touch with our web team at Blaze Media and we can get started on making you a fast and responsive website!