Regardless of what kind of business you have, there are certain website pages that you need so that your potential clients can find the information that they need to work with. That being said there are also pages that you shouldn’t have on your website that could be off-putting to your website visitors.
Generally speaking, potential website pages can be broken into three different categories, should have, should have depending on your industry and shouldn’t have.
Website Pages You Should Have
No matter what kind of business you have you need to have these pages on your website:
Home Page
This is kind of obvious but you need a home page for your website. Your home page should act as a “home base” for your business. It’s usually the most visited page on your website and arguably the most important page on your website. Your home page should include link to all of the services and/or products that you sell. You should also highlight past projects you’ve done and free resources like blog posts, podcast or newsletter freebies. It’s super important to include call to actions throughout your website but it’s even more important on your home page.
Call to Actions 101
Blog Page
If you’re a blogger obviously you’re going to need a blog page. But in my opinion, all business owners should have a blog because at the end of the day adding amazing content to your website is what’s going to get your website ranking on Google. One of the best ways to add content to your website is by blogging. That being said if you absolutely hate writing don’t force yourself. Keep in mind that if you want to start a podcast this usually requires a blog-style page.
Why You Need a Blog on Your Website
About Page
Most people have to know like and trust you before they’ll work with you. But instead of making your about page all about you and your full life story, you need to have it focus on how you can help your ideal client. When someone’s on your website all they care about is how you can help them solve their problem. So even though your about page is technically about you it really is about your client.
Contact Page
You need to make it easy for someone to contact you. Not only do you want to have a dedicated contact page but depending on what kind of business you have you might want to include your contact information in the footer of your website. Your contact page should include a form that someone can fill out but you should also have your email listed. Also include your business social media account, phone number and hours of operation if applicable. If the first step towards working with you is a free consultation you may want to include a link to that page on your contact page but I would personally avoid having these on the same page to avoid confusion.
Link in Bio/Instagram Links Page
Instead of paying for a third-party link in bio service like LinkTree I highly recommend that you have your Instagram links page hosted on your website. You can easily create a link in bio on either Showit or you can download a free link in bio page template. All you need to do is create a new page on your website, call it link in bio or something along those lines and add any important page links to the page.
Free Showit Link in Bio Page Template
Legal Page(s)
You need to have pages that whatever legal pages you’re required to have on your website. Make sure to link these pages in the footer of your website also.
If you’re looking for a privacy policy and terms of use templates I highly recommend Kailey Jacomet at Contractista.
Website Pages You Should Have Depending on Your Industry
There are a few more pages you could need on your website but it depends on what kind of business you have. For example, if you sell one-to-one services it makes sense to have a services page. But on the other hand, if you only sell products a services page would be very confusing on your website:
Portfolio/Galleries/Case Studies
If you’re a photographer, artist, designer, coach or something along those lines you’ll need a portfolio page on your website. Sometimes photographers would call this page a gallery instead. One thing that’s important to note about portfolio pages is that you need more than just photos of your work on the pages. You need images and text that describes the project to truly be effective, convert well and improve your SEO.
Podcast Page
If you want to start a podcast you’re going to need a podcast page. A lot of times on the backend you’ll end up using a blog-style page for a podcast, this is true of Showit and you’d also need the main blog page.
Online Scheduling Page
If one of the steps in your process is a paid or free consultation or an appointment of any kind you’re going to need a page on your website with an online scheduler. Both Calendly and Acuity can be added to Showit but I personally prefer Calendly. To avoid confusion I would have this on a page that’s separate from your regular contact page. However, you may still want to include your email or a link to your contact form on this page in case someone has questions about booking.
Newsletter Freebie Landing Page
This is totally personal preference but instead of having the actual newsletter forms on different pages of your website I like to create a landing page for the form and just link to it on your other pages. But like I said this is personal preference and you can skip this page and have multiple newsletter forms throughout your website. If you do decide to have a landing page for your newsletter I’d have a post subscribe thank you page that someone gets taken to after they’ve subscribed. This will encourage them to stay on your website longer after subscribing.
Sales Page
If you’re selling a course, membership, limited time offer or in general high ticket service, you’ll need a sales page on your website.
Website Pages You Shouldn’t Have
Not only are these pages bad for your SEO but they aren’t good for the user experience on your website:
FAQ Page
One common mistake I see on websites is that there is a separate page just for frequently asked questions. This is really bad for user experience and SEO on your website. You should include any relevant FAQ’s on the page that they apply. For example, if you sell products and have an FAQ about your return policy add it to your product page instead of an FAQ page.
Testimonials/Featured In Page
Your testimonials or featured in highlights should be sprinkled throughout your website, especially on your home, service, shop and about pages, not on a separate page. Having them all on one page is also bad for your website’s SEO but testimonials are a lot more powerful and effective if they’re throughout your other website pages.
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