The 7 Pages Every Small Business Website Needs
If you hang out with us long enough, you’re bound to hear us talk about how important your website is for your small business.
When you update your website or create a new one, one of the first things you should do is outline a list of the pages your website needs. When helping clients make a plan for their website pages, we take into consideration their budget and goals. Then we help them outline the website pages to best serve their needs.
In this blog, I’ll tell you:
The pages every website should have
Other common and helpful pages you might want on your website
Ways to reduce costs building your new website if on a tighter budget
The 7 Pages Every Website Should Have
Let me start by saying this: every website should have these seven pages. Yet, we work with small businesses all the time that decide to customize the number and types of pages that best fit their needs, goals, timeline and budget. It’s also worth pointing out that when we build websites at Hoffbeck + Co – all seven pages aren’t the same in cost and effort to build. Some pages are more substantial in content and others, while still important for your site, are much smaller and less content is needed and thus cost less to build.
So if you have a tighter budget, hear this from me before you dive in: Do not let your vision for the “perfect” website with all the pages you might want (or think you need) keep you from getting a legit website live. I’d rather you have a compelling and simplified website that serves you and your customers better instead of a confusing, poorly designed or outdated website with lots of pages. You can ALWAYS add more pages and content later.
Okay, now let’s go over the seven pages your website should have:
1) Home Page
Your home page is the first place people land when they come to your website. We all know first impressions matter, and it’s no exception for your website. The importance of a beautifully designed home page that clearly tells your customers what you do, how you can make their life better (aka: the problem you solve for them), and how to buy from you cannot be emphasized enough. It should be easy to navigate with clear compelling words and visually appealing design. You want to be sure to incorporate photos and/or videos of you and your team, as well as ones that show your ideal customer(s) happily enjoying your products or services. Read more tips on photos for your website here.
Your home page should include:
A clear compelling header section
Value propositions
The problem you solve
Customer testimonials and reviews
Overview of your services/products
Call-to-Action buttons throughout the page
*and more! – Blog coming soon about the sections you should have on your home page
2) Services/Product page
Depending on what you do, you should have at least one primary services or products page to show and tell customers about everything you offer.
This page should include:
More detailed information about your services or products (compared to what you have on your home page)
Photos of your products or people engaging with your services
Customer testimonials
Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons throughout
Value propositions
And more as applicable
If you have more than one primary service or product, you’ll want to consider separate pages for each of your services/products because you want to communicate specifically to your target buyer why they should buy X from you.
3) About page
The data shows that people love to look at About pages. It’s often one of the most high traffic pages on a website. Part of being a human is being drawn to stories, and the About page shares the story behind the business and/or the business owners/founders.
People want to see photos and/or videos of you. They want to learn the values behind the business and how it impacts and aligns with their values as a buyer. It’s about the story, but it’s essential that the story isn’t all about YOU. You want to write your story in a way that it connects to your buyer and why you’re in the business of solving their problem. This is key!
There’s so much great content you can put on your About page (that most small business owners don’t think about) to maximize the eyeballs you’re likely to get on it. It’s about the story you’re telling AND looking for applicable things to include on the page to help your customer stumble over things that help them gain confidence that they should buy from you.
For instance, your About page should include the following:
Photo(s), names and titles of business owner(s)
Photo(s) of the team – names and titles of the team (optional)
A company bio or story – tied to how you solve your customer’s problem
Authority elements, such as relevant and compelling statistics, logos of notable publications where you’ve been featured or badges of awards you’ve received
Email subscription sign up
Lead generator
4) Call-to-Action page (particularly for service-based businesses)
This should be the page dedicated to your primary call-to-action on your website, or in other words — the first step or action someone needs to take to buy from you. This is not the same as your Basic Contact Page (that’s separate, see below). You want to have ONE primary CTA button that you use throughout your website, and that button takes you to this page. You do NOT want this page to include a general inquiry form — (*hint: that’s what the Basic Contact page is for). You want this CTA page to clearly guide your potential buyer to the most seamless first step.
For instance, if you’re a professional services company — your CTA buttons might be: Schedule a Call. Then you would have a free first call booking calendar on your CTA page so people can schedule a call and get on your calendar without having to play email or phone tag. This calendar booking experience can include a simple intake form to help you gather the info you need before the call. This is what we do!
If you’re a product-based business, more than likely your CTA button will be “Shop Now,” and these buttons will take shoppers to your product page so they can browse your products and add them to their cart.
5) Blog page
Every website should have a blog. No matter if you’re a product or service-based business – you will benefit from consistently blogging.
There are a few key reasons why you should have a blog:
Establish trust with your customers by giving away free valuable information
Establish your brand as an authority in your space by showing you know what you’re talking about
SEO, SEO, SEO – Consistent long-form blogging, especially when done strategically, can help you get found on Google by more of your ideal customers
If you don’t have a blog yet and you’re feeling some resistance about starting one – take a deep breath and don’t let this overwhelm you. You can make a plan to start small or add a blog to your site later when you’re ready to roll it out.
Technically you’ll need two pages for building your blog: (1) the Blog directory page (i.e.: the page that shows all the blogs to browse through) and (2) a template for the Individual Blog posting page. Then you’ll be all set to get your blog rolling!
6) Basic Contact page
This is not a page you drive a lot of traffic to. That’s what your CTA page is for! This page is important to have in your footer though to give people who might be reaching out with questions before taking the first step, PR opportunities, or any other various reason.
This page should be simple and include:
Basic General Inquiry Form — Name, Email, Phone and Why you’re reaching out
Company Contact Info — Phone number, General email address, and Location
Somewhere on this page, be sure to direct people interested in working with you or buying from you to the appropriate CTA or Product page.
7) Legal Pages
Technically there are two pages most websites have for this, but we’re bucketing them into one category here for this blog. They’re important to help protect your business yet you don’t really need to feel the impact of the number of each of these pages in your website plan as far as content planning and costs go. Generally clients will simply send us the legal content for these pages from their attorney, then we’ll copy and paste it into the appropriate page and ensure all formatting is consistent and fits the fonts and styling of your website.
Privacy Policy page
We aren’t attorneys, but it’s a best practice to make sure you’re publicly disclosing important information with legal implications on your website. The Privacy Policy page is where you disclose to your website visitors how you use their data and personal information, and it also includes information on cookies, advertising and more. Talk to your business attorney to help you get this content gathered for your site. If you need a great small business attorney referral, let us know!
Terms & Conditions page
Like the Privacy Policy page, this page content should be drafted by a business attorney who can best advise and help you based on the nature of your business and how you operarte. What’s distinct about this page, different from the Privacy Policy page, is that it discloses to website users what they agree to by using your website.
BONUS PAGE: Portfolio or Gallery page (for most service-based businesses)
Depending on the nature of your business, you’ll probably want to choose either a Portfolio or a Gallery to feature your work. These pages give you the chance to show people what you do.
If you’re an interior designer or contractor, you’ll want a photo and/or video gallery to show off the incredible spaces you built and designed. If you’re an event or wedding venue, you want to show photos and videos of your spaces. If you’re a professional services business, you want a portfolio that features case studies or examples of your work. This is one of the best ways you can help your ideal customers sell themselves on buying from you or working with you.
*TIP: Don’t forget the “Page Not Found” page (aka: 404-Error page)
This is a small simple page – yet it’s important to have and is also beneficial for SEO purposes. I’m sure you’ve seen a 404-page before. It’s basically a page that notifies a user that the URL they entered or clicked doesn’t exist (anymore). Typically you’ll simply want to redirect people back to your home page if they end up on a 404 page. We’re not counting this page in our top 8 pages your website should have list because it’s so small and simple to create, plus it’s not a page people are looking for. 🙂 (We always include this in our website builds). But if we’re not building your site for you, then be sure it gets created.
Other Common Pages You Might Want on Your Website
This list is meant to give you ideas of other common pages small business websites benefit from having. This is not an exhaustive list, and the pages on this list don’t apply to every type of business. It’s simply intended to help you identify other pages you might want or need on your website.
Additional Services / Product pages (1 per revenue stream)
FAQ page
Clients pages
Shop / Online Store
Vendors or Strategic Partnerships page
Lead generator page(s)
Referrals Program page
Jobs page
Events page
Press/News page
Testimonials/Reviews page
Resources/Additional Information page(s)
Returns/Refunds page
Three of the pages from this list that have the greatest impact to add to a website are: (1) Additional Services/Product page(s), (2) Lead generator page(s), and (3) Vendor/Strategic Partnerships page(s).
Ways to Reduce Costs Building Your New Website
If you’re on a tighter budget but need a new website, don’t let the above list of pages make you feel like you can’t get an awesome new website built on a budget. We help clients all the time that decide to get a 1, 2, or 3 page website live based on their constraints: timing and/or budget. A small website is sufficient to get them up and running, and they can add other pages later when the timing is better.
We’re BIG fans of starting with what you have. I’ve already said this, but I’ll say it again —- Something is better than nothing, and a small intentional site refresh is better than having a site live that’s outdated or ugly and doing you more harm than good. Don’t let perfect or your ideal dream website get in the way of your website going live!
Here are a couple of ways you can reduce the cost of your new website.
Reduce the number of pages
Consider what pages you could cut out of your site plan for starters. It’s so much easier to add more pages once you’ve got a site you love up and running, even if it’s just a home page!
Pages to consider cutting out first:
Blog, Portfolio or Gallery — These pages can be so valuable to have on your site, but they often take a bit more planning and intentionality to pull the content together (or: photos, videos, case studies, and a committed blogging schedule). Cut these from your phase 1 website plan, but don’t forget about them!
Services or Product page(s) — Have a section for this on your home page for the time being
About page — Include a section for this on your home page with a team photo or headshot of the business owner(s)
CTA page — If you’re dialing down to a Home page website, you could have a primary CTA section at the bottom of your home page and setup all the CTA buttons on the page to anchor link down to this section
*Note: We build websites for all types of budgets. We offer small website packages like these, or the opportunity to build your own website plan based on your needs and budget.
Use templated pages
If you’ve already done the work/invested in a page getting designed and built, you can often create a duplicate page and use the exact same design for another page, so all you need to do is update the copywriting and photos.
The best example for this is if you need multiple Services pages — build the first one, then duplicate it for the others.
Templated pages reduce the effort and therefore the cost. There’s inevitably some work that still needs to get done to tweak the page, but this is certainly a way to help you reduce your spend.
Now get out there and get that new website of yours out into the world!
And if you’re looking for help, we gotchu. We specialize in building Squarespace websites. We offer website design, development, and copywriting. Schedule a Call with us today. ⚡️
More soon,
Mahla
CONSULTANT + PARTNER
P.S.
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