What pages should my website have?
When planning a website it is important to work out what pages you need in order to promote your business in the best possible way.
When planning a website it is important to work out what pages you need in order to promote your business in the best possible way.
For example a photography website would be lacking if a gallery didn’t feature to promote their work as an audio based website would have little need for a gallery.
The following should be essential pages for every website.
This is the first page your potential customer will come across. The average user spends no more than two minutes on a website therefore it’s vital to grab their attention in the first few seconds with relevant information. The homepage is the centre of your website and should provide a brief summary of who you are and the services you provide.
The about us page should contain an in depth history of your business, the more relevant information the better as this helps to build trust. It is a good opportunity to say what sets you apart from the competition, including things like company awards and accreditations.
Including this page allows you to give your potential customers a full account of what you are promoting or selling.
Giving an introduction to your services or products before listing them adds key words to your site and can be helpful if the potential customer needs more information. Adding a brief description with pictures and links to the individual products or services allows the site user to find out more information if necessary.
Since the 1st January, 2007 it is a legal requirement to include your company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on your website. A contact page would be the most suitable place to hold this information.
This page also needs to show all contact details including mobile phone, landline, fax, email, by post and your address. By giving all this information makes your company more trustworthy, allowing potential customers to feel secure when parting with money. Ideally this page requires a map and or directions, opening hours or office hours, a contact request form and social media links where applicable.
Contact information is also relevant on the home page and on the headers and footers of all pages, as are social media links providing you use them.
A frequently asked questions page allows you to provide fast and efficient solutions to questions a potential customer would usually have to wait for a response to. Making your website into a hub of information can only benefit your brand and search engine optimization. It’s also a good page to add your some keywords.
This sort of page can be very useful if a lot of your work comes from word of mouth, everyone likes to make sure they aren’t getting ripped off. A photograph of your service or product with a website link and short sentence will show you are trustworthy and credible source.
It is most important if you have a gallery to make sure your images are high quality, so don’t be tempted to take them on your phone! Poor quality images can reflect badly on your business. This page could also be called ‘portfolio’ or ‘our work’.
This page is an ideal way of combining a testimonials page with a gallery. Showing your high standard of work and backing it up with testimonials from your actual clients. This page speaks for its self!
This page could be the most useful page if used correctly. Regularly updated websites with unique and relevant information generally rank higher on Google than a static, dormant website. Updating Facebook and other social media platforms with new blogs and news is an amazing way to share new information with both existing and potential customers, so change your status, tweet it, pin it and Instagram it!
One of the most important things to remember when you have a website is to make it work for you. After all it shows your business values, as well as being an extension of your business and ‘voice’ of your business online. Not every website is up there to sell, but every website has the power to change how someone perceives you and the service that you offer.