For UK small businesses scoping their first or next web project, the question often comes up: do I need a full website, or just a landing page? The answer depends on what you're trying to do, not what's cheaper.
What a landing page is
A landing page is a single, focused page designed for a specific campaign, audience or call to action. It has one job: convert a particular kind of visitor into a particular action. Pricing typically £400-£1,200 for a properly designed and built one.
Examples:
- A Google Ads campaign for "emergency plumber Cardiff" pointing at a page that's just about emergency plumbing
- A new service launch with a sign-up form for early access
- A targeted page for a specific industry or persona
- An event registration page
What a full website is
A full website is a multi-page property covering everything a prospect might want to know about your business: services, sector pages, pricing, about, contact, blog, case studies. It supports multiple buying journeys and serves the long-term goal of being your discoverable, indexable, full presence online. Pricing £799-£8,000+ depending on scope. Look at our pricing tiers for what each tier includes.
When a landing page is the right answer
- You're running paid advertising and need a high-conversion target
- You're testing a new product or service and don't want to redesign your full site for it yet
- You have a temporary campaign (event, seasonal offer, limited launch)
- You need something live in 5 days and a full rebuild is months away
Landing pages are tactical. They're cheap to build, fast to launch, and easy to iterate.
When a full website is the right answer
- You have a real business that needs to be findable, credible, and informative
- You want to rank in organic search beyond bare-minimum brand queries
- You're targeting prospects in multiple sectors or with multiple needs
- You need a CMS your team can edit
- You want to capture leads through more than one channel
A full website is strategic. It's your long-term presence and asset.
When you need both
Most established UK small businesses end up with:
- A full website as the primary presence
- Separate campaign landing pages for specific ads, events or sector pushes
The landing pages live on subdomains or specific URL paths, share the brand, but are conversion-optimised for their specific audience without the navigation noise of the full site.
Common mistakes
- Building a landing page when you actually need a full site (then having no organic discoverability)
- Building a full site for £4,000 when a £500 landing page would have served the current goal
- Treating a landing page as permanent — they need to be retired or updated as campaigns shift
- Not measuring landing page conversion separately from full-site conversion
How to decide
Ask:
- What's the single most important visitor action right now?
- Where is traffic coming from (organic, ads, referral, direct)?
- How many distinct audiences am I serving?
- What's the budget and timeline?
If you have one audience, one action, and need it live fast: landing page. If you have multiple audiences and want long-term visibility: full website. If you have an established full site and need a campaign push: landing page on top of it.
A note from the Bloomorbit studio
We build both landing pages and full websites from our Cardiff studio. Landing pages from £400, full sites from £799. If you're not sure which you need, the free 10-minute call usually settles it within five minutes.