Hi there champ! By now you would have identified your website goals, created a budget and have a solid idea of the essential elements to include on your website. Now let’s continue that by filling out your website with some must-have pages.
A website, by definition, is a group of connected web pages. This means that your hardworking homepage needs a few trustworthy teammates. Like the homepage, each teammate will also have a specific role to play and essential elements. Here’s how to ensure that your website pages are working together towards your goal.
About Page
The About Page is an essential website page to establish trust and credibility of your business to website visitors.
If your visitors didn’t bail after arriving on your homepage, their next destination is likely to be your About page. Here, they are looking to see if you are a good option to do business with.
These are elements for your About page to get it’s job done well:
1. One-paragraph summary of why your business exists or the benefits of your products and services. This summary shouldn’t be a “Mission Statement,” and should have a conversational tone.
2. What’s your unique selling point? Explain why you’re different and innovative. Or perhaps you’re more flexible and edgy than your competition. Explain why, briefly.
Some personality for you: Me & my son
3. Establish your credibility. List your track record, for example when your company went into business, some major projects and achievements. You can also provide 2-3 testimonials.
4. Show some personality. Include a picture of yourself outside of work, e.g. playing tennis. Tell a story of what prompted you to start your company. Link to your blog and social media profiles.
A final reminder: Your About page should be about the business, not you. Even if you are a one-person business, you and your business are not the same thing.
Products & Services Page
Your products and/or services page exist to persuade the person viewing to buy or contact you for a quote.
For them to be persuaded, you need to answer their potential questions and overcome objections. Therefore, this page needs to educate website visitors on your product or service benefits. Essential elements for this page:
1. A one-sentence summary of your product or service. This goes right after the product name, and is designed to grab the visitor’s attention.
2. Product or service benefits. Explain what your product or service will do for the customer. Best conveyed in bullet points.
3. A picture of your product. Even if you are selling a service, try to find a picture to represent it. Images help break up the text and draw the eye.
4. A list of everything the customer will receive when buying this product or service. The customer doesn’t want any surprises.
5. The price. Many website visitors are simply comparing prices, so be sure to show it to them. Showing a price also saves you from responding to emails from those who are looking for ‘budget’ solutions.
6. Call to action, a.k.a. how to buy. If you’re selling a product, use a prominent Buy Now button. If you’re a service business, link to your Contact page.
Remember to talk about your benefits (customer-centric) rather than the features (product-centric).
Contact Page
The goal of the contact page is to.. wait for it.. get people to contact you! In addition to your contact number and email address, here are some additional things that you can add to your contact page.
Contact form. This will save your prospects the trouble of having to launch their email application to send you an email. You can use form builders like Formstack to create a free contact form for your website.
Google Map. If you’re a retail business a map to your location is super useful. I prefer Google Maps over image or PDF maps because visitors can get directions, etc.
Social media links. Some prospects may be more comfortable to contact you via Twitter or Facebook. If you’ve got profiles there, you can link to them from your Contact page.
Other Pages
Finally, here are some other pages which you may consider adding to your website.
Frequently Asked Questions
A FAQ page can help you save time from answering the same questions over and over. FAQ pages also helps reduce doubt and can help you increase sales. However, please don’t use your FAQ page to answer questions that are better addressed in your product or services page, e.g. “Does your product have a money-back guarantee?”
Blog
While a blog is not technically a ‘page’, a blog is a great way to get customers to know you, show your expertise, recent projects and personality, all of which goes toward making your website more effective. I will be covering why your business should have a blog in a future article.
Next Actions
Website owners sometimes overly focus on their homepage, but in reality the homepage doesn’t stand alone. It needs the support of other pages to create an effective website.
- Schedule time in your calendar to plan and write your About, Products and/or Services and Contact pages.
- Use the points above as a guide to draft out the copy (text) for these pages.
- Treat your website as a group of pages that support each other
Have a question? Ask your question in the comments. Click here to read the rest of the Website ClickStart: Simplifying the Steps to Creating Your First Website series.
Photo credit: Ange Ward-Brown
The ClickStarter 
Great post.
I am going live with my new business on December 1st.
This post has been a great help, I now have a better idea of which pages I need to write up and have ready for launch..
N.B: If you are ever looking for a small business to run case studies on my new business may be a good candidate.
Cheers
Hi David, glad you found it useful! I will definitely keep your website in mind for future case studies. Thanks for visiting 🙂
The about page is the second most visited page on my blog so I recommend focusing a lot of attention on that one:)
Yes Annabel, that’s great advice. I really love your About page – http://www.getinthehotspot.com/australian-social-media-blogger-annabel-candy/
Thanks for stopping by!