There’s currently around 1.12 billion websites on the internet, meaning there really are plenty of fish in the sea! But you want your fish to stand out and get noticed. It’s important that you have the basics, but you first need to know which pages are essential so that you can have a website that not only exists in this pond, but thrives in it! (Okay we’re done with the water metaphor now)
Visitors to your site will expect an easy User Experience (UX) and a stunning User Interface (UI) when they land on your website. When both of these things are carefully considered, they will increase conversions, leads, and brand awareness.
That’s why we’re going to explore what pages you should be including on your website to maximise its effectiveness and provide you a great return on investment.
Here’s a snapshot of our helpful list of top pages to include on your website:
Now, let’s dive a little deeper into them… (and you thought we were done with the water puns!)
1. Homepage
You should view the homepage of your website as the shop window to your business! It’s the first thing they see when they enter and it will help users form an instant impression about not just your website, but also your business and brand. When done right, it will be the reason that users feel invited in and want to find out more!
Its main function should be to direct users to the other pages in your website. This can be done through clear ‘call to actions’. A call to action invites a user to perform an action, such as “contact us now”, or “view services”, and is a must have if you want your users to continue their journey on your site and engage with it. It’s also the first step in all lead generation efforts.
When a user lands on the homepage, they should know exactly what you do and how you can help them. Websites that fail to deliver on this will have a high bounce rate, meaning users don’t continue navigating through your site. And we definitely don’t want this!
2. About us page
An about page is a great way to communicate to a user who you are, whilst providing an overview of your business’ values and purpose. Content on this page will depend on your business goals and personality. For example, a smaller business may be looking to connect with customers on a personal level and might provide more information about their team and their starting journey. Whereas a larger corporate business might be more inclined to share about their history and the services they provide.
Whatever the size and goals of your business, an about us page is essential to giving your users a better insight into who you are as a business.
3. Service page
If your business is offering unique services that you want to highlight, a service page is where to do that! These should include in a description of the services you provide, and you could even include a visual for added detail!
If you don’t clearly display the services your business offers, users will be left feeling confused about what you do and will assume that you don’t offer what they are after, likely ending with them leaving the page and investing in one of your competitors. The worst outcome!
4. Product pages
A must have, for E-commerce websites in particular, is product pages. These should display the products you sell with a great UX to maximise conversion rates.
Some of the essential features of a successful product page are:
- High-quality product imagery
- Product descriptions
- Clear price
- An easy checkout process
If you want to know more about the essentials for a top-notch e-commerce website, we went into more detail here.
5. Case study
Showcasing your work through client case studies are a huge advantage to businesses that offer services, or even large scale products. Everyone loves scrolling the reviews of a product, and case study pages offer the same type of reassurance and trust. Particularly in B2B businesses, case studies are a great way to represent the different ways you can support potential clients, especially if the user reading them falls into the same category/has the same problem as the case study!
They allow users to view the quality of your work and explore customer testimonials on a broader scale, helping them make an informed decision as to whether they can rely on you to provide a problem to your solution!
They also help to keep website SEO friendly because they’re adding valuable content to your website. Honestly, you can’t lose with a good quality case study page!
6. Blog page
Regular blog writing is a great way to improve the marketing of your business. Well written blogs (like this one!) that include keywords you want to rank on search engines for will help your website become more visible to potential customers. It also shows that your business is active and wants to provide helpful resources to their audience.
You could include blogs that cover topics such as:
- Recent business news
- Trending industry topics
- Top tips and advice
- Services you provide
7. Contact us
A contact page is a must have. No questions asked. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to contact us! How are your website visitors going to be able to act on the information they have just digested from your website? You will lose out on a lot of customer relationships and business if you don’t provide users with at least 2 ways that they can get a hold of you. Whether that’s a form they submit, a phone number or email address they reach out to, or even a Whatsapp number they can use!
How you want your customers to contact you will affect how you approach this page. For businesses with offices or shops that you want customers to be able to find, you may want to include an address, directions or even a map feature. Some businesses may want to include a contact form for people to address their enquiries and to make contacting you more convenient. If you’re a restaurant or retail establishment, you could take it one step further and provide details on local parking and public transport.
Whatever you do, always include a phone number and an email address that will guarantee fast response!
How can Milk & Tweed help you and your website?
If you’re looking at giving your current website a fresh lick of paint, or are in need of a brand new custom website to showcase you and your brand, then get in touch! Our friendly and experienced team of website designers and developers are experts in all things website and would love to help you to kick-start your project!
To find some of our website case studies, click here!