What pages do you need on your website?

Introduction

Like most things in life there isn’t a perfect answer to the question about what website pages you need.

What follows is a starting point if you are reviewing an existing site or planning a new one.

I have divided the type of pages into standard, legal and sales & marketing pages.

Standard Website Pages

A good start for most businesses would be the following pages:

• Home
  • Make it clear what you do
  • What problems do you solve?
  • How do you help?
  • Who do you help?
  • Demonstrate why someone should choose you rather than one of your competitors
• Contact
  • Make it easy for people to get in touch with you
• Testimonials
  • Provide evidence that you are as good as you say you are
  • Video testimonials are very powerful
• FAQs
  • Answer the common questions prospective clients may have
• Get a quote/price
  • Make it easy for people to find out your fees
• About
  • Build a good impression of your business and position you as an expert in your industry
• Blog/News
  • Adding short articles to the site is another way to prove you are an expert in your field and that you are active in your industry
  • Excellent for SEO and marketing
• Service/Product 1
  • Details of 1 of your core services/products
• Service/Product 2
  • Details of 1 of your core services/products
• Service/Product 3
  • Details of 1 of your core services/products

You could have the details of your services/products on a single page.

However, evidence shows that having a dedicated page about a particular service or product is more effective.

That set of 10 pages is a good foundation for a successful website.

And then you can add new pages as and when needed.

Legal Pages

You will also need some or all of the following legal website pages:

• Privacy Policy
  • Explain what you do with any data you collect from people on your website.
• Cookie Policy (this page is sometimes integrated with the privacy policy)
• Website Terms of Use
  • This page explains the “rules” a website visitor should follow when using your website.
• Delivery Information
  • Explain when people can expect to receive the items they have bought. This page is good for supporting customer support.
• Refunds and Returns
  • It is often easier to provide a separate page for refunds rather than including these policies in a lengthy terms and conditions page.
• Comment Policy
  • If you have a blog on your website you might want to have a Comment Policy
• Copyright Notice
  • This page is used to inform visitors about your policies on them using your content or even how you want them to link to your content.

Sales and Marketing Website Pages

As well as a selection of standard web pages and the required legal pages a website also needs some sales and marketing pages. It might be that your business wouldn’t typically sell from a website but I do ask that you at least consider it.

Most websites need some marketing pages though to boost the number of people that get to see the site.

Here is a brief introduction to a particular type of marketing page and a sales page.

Landing Pages

In digital marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is a standalone page solely used as part of a marketing campaign. It is the page that a person “lands” on after clicking a link elsewhere on the internet.

Typically you will be offering a person who lands on this page something in exchange for their contact details. This could be an e-book, gift voucher, free sample, free review or a free course – the list is endless.

A landing page only has one focus. And for that reason it is common to hide the navigation menu from the top and footer area from these types of pages.

Sales Pages

Landing pages can get a bit difficult to define sometimes are they are known by many other terms.

A sales page though is much more straightforward.

A sales page is another standalone page with the only aim of selling a single product. The purpose of a sales page is to convert a viewer into a customer.

Conclusion

So to recap:

On a business website you need a selection from the standard pages, some of the legal pages, at least one marketing page and possibly a sales page (multiple pages if you are running an online shop or sell a lot of services/products online).