Business
10 Pages Your Website Needs to Boost Your Business
Lost in all the possibilities for what features your website might need? Get started with the most important pages now.
I’ve written before about how to create an effective website for your business. One of the trickiest things about designing a good website is that it’s not just one “thing” — any business website needs multiple pages. So what pages does your website need, and how can they best support each other to create a good experience for your customer and help grow your business?
1. Home page
A Home page is exactly that. It’s the “home” for the website — there’s only one Home page.
The Home page could be anything you want it to be, but typically, it has a navigation bar or a menu and links to other pages. For a very small website, it might be the only page.
The Home page is not always where people “land” when they do a search on their browser. The term “Home page” is not synonymous with “Landing page”. When doing an internet search, your prospective customer could land on a sales page or a blog page or any other page. In short, “Landing page” could be any one of several pages, whereas there is only one Home page.
Having conversations about the “Landing page” when you mean “Home page” can be a trap. Hence, as you interact with those who are helping you to build, redesign, or analyze the statistics on your Home page, be sure that you’re referring to it as the Home page, not the Landing page.
2. About page
Your About page is your second most-visited page after your Home page, so it’s certainly one of the pages your website needs. But what goes on your About page? Nearly every article out there says that the purpose of the About page is to describe the company’s mission, vision, values, business objectives, and history of the company.
What a snore!
As a business owner, my aim for my entire website — all pages, including the About page — is to add to my bottom line! How could that boring stuff help people in their buying decision?
EastInnovations has a directive about Home pages that is totally aligned with my belief about About pages. Here’s what they say:
Your homepage must establish your brand, encourage visitors to dig deeper into the rest of the site and ultimately — convert them into loyal customers.
To accomplish that, think about how to start your narrative. One good approach is to start by giving your unique value proposition. Continue by addressing your visitor’s problem or need, and then pivot to why your company is the right one to solve that problem or meet that need. It’s that simple.
In other words, the focus should be on the customer’s problem or need. It’s not about your entire corporate history and structure. Nor is it your pseudo-resume.
My mantra is this: The “About” page is not about you; it’s about your customer! Invite them into a story that will show them how you can meet their needs.
3. Blog page
Although there could be hundreds of posts, there is technically only one “page,” on a WordPress site or similar. Before you can post your content, you’ll need to choose a design for your blog page. Here are some ideas for beautiful blog design.
Your Blog page is your third most-visited page (after Home and About), so give adequate attention to this. In my mind, it’s not a nice-to-have page. It’s a critical page your website needs. Your blog page is a great place to give value to your customer and show off your expertise.
So how do you get ideas for blog content?
Personally, I generate blog content by listening to the questions that my clients or prospective clients ask. Some 80 percent of my blog posts simply answer those questions. The other 20 percent are “lessons learned” from growing my own business.
My rule to myself is this: If I hear the question three times, it’s a blog post. For example, nearly every coaching client I’ve ever worked with has raised questions about to how to set high-leverage activities or how to reward themselves for achieving a goal. I also blog about mistakes I’ve made that have been productivity killers, and this post you’re reading now came from mistakes I’ve made in communicating to others about what I want done on my own website.
My question to myself is, how can I roll this post into a product or service (e.g., course, workshop, etc.) that I could sell?
4. Sales page
A Sales page, obviously, aims to sell a product or service. Some people call this a Product page. But I prefer Sales page, both because it may feature either products or services (or both), and because it uses the persuasive language that should be used for selling.
A true Sales page doesn’t just list the price alongside of a thumbnail sketch of the product or service. It speaks to the problem the product or service solves (not just the “features”), its credibility, what the customer will experience when using the product or service, and much more.
Many times, it should have an FAQ and give a clear call to action (CTA). It might even have a transitional call to action: a free asset that functions as an appetizer. Prospective customers might not be ready to commit to a purchase, but they might be willing to give you their email address in exchange for something helpful. That means your sales page needs to lead to an Opt-in page, which is another page your website needs.
5. Opt-in page
An Opt-in page (or sometimes, just a portion of a page) collects data about the prospective client. And by the way, it’s “opt-in” (hyphenated) if it’s a descriptor for the page, but “opt in” (no hyphen) if it’s describing an action that the user takes.
Before creating this, it’s critical to know exactly what information is needed to “talk to” this prospective customer in forthcoming email messages. Almost always, an Opt-in page has some sort of lead generator magnet. It might be a downloadable checklist, a quiz, or some other type of valuable asset that your leads will download in exchange for giving you their contact information.
6. Payment page
Ta da! Yes, this is where the customer pays. Straightforward enough, but also a potential pain point for technical difficulties — make sure whatever service you’re using functions properly.
7. Thank you page
After the customer pays, a thank you page generally appears. Here are several examples of Thank you pages. Notice how very different each one is.
8. Contact page
The contact page often says “Contact” or “Contact Us.” But not always. I’ve seen several variations including:
- Let’s Talk
- Say Hello
- Friendly Folks, Standing By
Remember, too, that it’s not just existing customers who want to contact you. Visitors who don’t know you might go to your contact page. Therefore, it’s a great opportunity to work in an FAQ to get them to browse around more.
Don’t forget to include links to your social media, as that is yet another way to contact you.
9. Search page
A search function is helpful for nearly every webpage, and vital if you have several different products on offer. Some customers will skip everything else on your Home page and go straight to the search to look for the product they have in mind. So make sure your search is functional and the Sales pages are strong.
10. Custom 404 page
This is an often-overlooked page your website needs. When a visitor attempts to access a page that doesn’t exist on your site, they will land on a page that says there’s a 404 error.
SmallBizTrends asserts that if a visitor sees a default 404 page, they’re overwhelmed with text and technical jargon. That means they won’t be back. As they explain, “A custom 404 page ensures that this doesn’t happen by providing links to all the relevant parts of your site (or possibly even a site map) so that search engines have access to your complete site.”
Make a webpage that works for your customer
When creating or revising your website, your designer or team should be on the same wavelength as you. That means being clear about the name and function of each of these pages to avoid having the discussion can go downhill quickly. That has happened in my business more times than I can count. So start with these 10 pages your website needs and build from there.
What did you learn from this post that you didn’t already know? Let me know in the comments below!
