7 Essential Pages for Your Website
When thinking about building a website, there are lots of factors you need to consider. One of the most common questions from small business owners is “What pages should I have on my website?”. When deciding on your website’s content, it’s first important to think about your site visitors and what they will expect to find. Having a clear idea of why your customers are on your site and their end goal will be essential. In this article, we look at some of the must-have pages for your website and explain why you need them.
Homepage
The homepage will likely be the first page your visitors see. It should be compelling enough to catch their attention and entice them in to view the rest of your website. Having an eye-catching ‘hero’ image or slider at the top of the homepage is one way of drawing your visitors in. Alongside this, you should include a brief introduction, a summary of your services, a call to action, and a way to get in contact. It’s also common to include your mission statement and any testimonials you have from clients. Whilst having a nice looking homepage is great. It’s also important to bear in mind that having a lot of content, especially images, can slow your website down. Most users won’t stick around longer than 15 seconds if your website fails to load, or doesn’t provide the information they’re seeking.
About Page
The about page will normally include a longer description about who you are or about the company. This is where you can describe your ethos and the history of the company, for example. Explaining what makes you different from the competition will often convince visitors to stay on your website or make a purchase from you. This is especially true if they can connect with your brand culture and principles. It’s a good idea to showcase any achievements or accreditations the company has received and bios for staff or employees. This will create a more personable experience for your customers.
Services / Products Page
You will want to dedicate a page to showcasing your products and/or services. You should begin with a summary of each offer. If you have multiple services or products, you may want to filter them down into sub-service/product pages and categorise them. In either case, it’s important to include a clear description of what your customers can expect when choosing to use a service or product you sell and explain what stands you above the competition. Finally, you will want to have a call to action such as a button where your customers can click to contact you or complete the order.
Case Studies / Clients / Portfolio Page
Would you buy from a business without seeing any examples of what they did or sold? Providing examples of the work you’ve previously done is a great way of converting visitors into customers. This could be in the form of case studies for your clients, describing the brief, challenges and outcomes you had. Or if you work within the creative industry, then a portfolio page may be more suited. Usually, this will be very visual, consisting of mostly photos that would detail each case when navigated through. Again it’s good to explain the challenges and outcomes so visitors can relate to their own requirements.
Blog / News Page
A blog is a great way to engage with your customers or potential prospects. It gives you a chance to answer common questions, share information on new products, industry trends, company news, or provide some expertise. Having a blog is a great way to market your business and can help increase SEO rankings and conversions. However, failure to keep it updated could have adverse effects on your brand and search engine presence.
Contact Page
There’s no point having a great website if your customers can’t find a way to get in contact with you. This is where your contact page comes in. Typically you want to include your phone number, email address, mailing address, social media channels, and your opening hours. It’s also common to include a contact form that sends an autoresponder message or general information back to the enquirer. Whilst it is vital to have a clear and easily accessible contact page, you should also include your main contact information in places such as the footer and/or header of your website.
Privacy Policy
With data protection regulations becoming more stringent, a privacy policy is a must-have page on any website. It needs to outline what data you collect from visitors to your site and how it is shared, stored and processed. It’s also important to let site users know how they can obtain a copy of all the data that your website collects from them.
Just as important as a privacy policy page is a terms & conditions page. This page will explain the rules that visitors must abide by when using your website. You will want to include how your website functions and the rules and guidelines underlying its use. It should also include information on which country’s law governs the agreement, an intellectual property disclosure or copyright laws in place and a clause explaining that you’re not responsible for any links to third parties.
A Fresh Approach to Web Design
At FreshOnline, we can build websites to suit any businesses requirements. Whether you require a brochure website, some additional functionality or an online shop, we can help you plan the pages for your website. We build beautiful modern websites for all types of small businesses.
