Most Important Pages to Create for your Business Website

Building a website can be kind of a pain in the ass even if you’re not new to web design. Working on your own business stuff – whether it’s graphics or your site or your social media copy – is sometimes way more difficult than working on someone else’s.

Isn’t it so weird how that works? It’s way too easy to get caught up in decision fatigue and then never hitting “publish” on your site.

If you need help figuring out what pages to create for your business website or blog, I’m here to help! Let’s jump into this together and get your site up and running.

Disclosure: This contains affiliate links which means that I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through one of my links (at no extra cost to you.) You can read the whole affiliate disclosure here if you want to. Thanks so much for reading and supporting!

 

 

Homepage

Okay, forgive me for being so obvious but you do need to have a homepage. You likely already know this.

Still, I think we should go over some ground rules to make sure that your homepage keeps people on your website and helps your website convert. The last thing you want is to end up with a homepage that confuses people and drives them away.

First, stick to 1-2 main calls to action. 1 is even better than 2, if possible. Your website visitors are much more likely to take an action if you ask them specifically to take that action. But if you ask too much of them, they are less likely to do anything.

So stick to 1-2 main asks and try not to sprinkle in anything and everything you offer on your homepage. Here are some examples of main calls to action:

• Book a call
• Sign up for an email list
• View/shop products
• Call us (right now, not a scheduled call)
• Email us
• Buy this thing

Ideally, you only ask them to do 1-2 of those things on your homepage. If you have an email list but it isn’t your primary source of income, I’d recommend saving signup boxes for another page of your site (blog posts are great for newsletter signups)

Here are some examples of calls to action that I encourage you to save for other pages if they aren’t directly tied to your primary source of income:

• Follow me on social media
• Sign up for my email list
• Join my Facebook group
• Buy this thing

Instead, save those calls to action for other pages where they might be more relevant. Especially if you’re building out a blog or a podcast on your site, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to drop links to all of the things you have going on in your business.

Keep it simple and your website will convert SO much better.

 

About page

Building this page might seem kinda silly, but most people who are serious about working with you or buying from you will click on this page.

Your “About” page will likely be one of the most clicked pages on your entire site, actually! I know it can feel really weird to write about yourself but I can almost guarantee that no one will think you’re weird for giving people a little more information about you.

People want to know who they’re working with or buying from. For a lot of people, it feels good to make a personal connection of some sort with someone you plan on supporting. Even if it is just over the internet.

Your “About” page is your chance to connect with the right people on a deeper level. Don’t be afraid to spill some details about your life here – you want to get your ideal customer or reader thinking “Yessss, I like this girl” and to keep browsing your website.

On the flip side, it’s normal (and actually a good thing) if your website repels some people, too. Especially if you work in a service-based industry, you want to show off your personality here so that you repel pain-in-the-butt clients that would not have a good time working with you. If you’re more casual then corporate, make sure that’s coming across in your messaging so that your client isn’t expecting you to show up on your call in a blazer.

A common issue you might run into here is being afraid of not being “right” for everyone. I just want to stress this: That’s a good thing. If you’re trying to please everyone with your website, copy, and messaging, you’re probably not coming off as very memorable to anyone at all.

You need to make a decision about what kind of people you want to have as customers, readers, or clients – then write for those people and not anyone else. I promise that this works about a hundred million percent better than trying to make a website or write copy that everyone in the world will like.

 

Legal pages

I’m sorry that this is kind of a buzzkill, but you probably need legal pages on your website. I can’t give you legal advice, so this isn’t that, but from my understanding (and most peoples’ on the internet) you will need a Privacy Policy page on your website if you collect any sort of info from your users.

You collect info from your users if you have a contact form on your site, if you have Google Analytics installed, a Facebook Pixel set up, if you have an email newsletter signup box on your site, and lots of other situations.

Long story short, you probably need a Privacy Policy page because you’re supposed to let people know all of the details about what info you collect on your site and what you do with that information.

There are a few other pages or clauses that are a good idea to have and that you may or may not need depending on what’s on your site and how people interact with it (Sorry this is so vague, but I’m not a lawyer! I do think you need a Privacy Policy for sure.)

Here’s a list of legal pages or clauses to consider whether or not you need:

• Terms of Service
• ADA Compliance Statement
• Cookie Disclosure
• Privacy Policy
• Return Policy
• Affiliate Disclaimer

Some website owners choose to sit down with a lawyer to draft these legal pages or clauses while a lot of us don’t have that kinda budget laying around for our blogs or brand new businesses.

A relatively affordable way to get these pages up on your website is by using legal page templates, which you can buy from a few different lawyers who create these just for people like me and you to grab and fill in the blanks.

Amira Law offers a really good deal on a legal page template bundle that will get you set up with multiple legal pages that you’ll probably need at some point in time during the life of your website.

Her bundle is one of the least expensive options out there and it’s solid – she is a lawyer herself. I recommend grabbing it and getting your Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions page content ready to go.

All you’ll need to do is fill in the blanks – add in your business or blog name and contact info where necessary and then copy and paste the text into your website pages. And bam! You have a solid legal foundation for your website, which is soooooo important.

 

Contact page

You’ll need to provide some way for your people to get in touch with you. The bad thing about contact pages is that they are prone to spam. Whether you have a form on that page or you just have your email posted over there, you’re going to get spam emails.

It sucks, I know, but you can also get new clients, customers, valuable submissions or questions, and all kinds of awesome partnership and collab requests through your contact form. So in my opinion, it’s definitely worth it.

It’s up to you if you want to link your contact page in your main navigation bar or if you’d rather move it down to the footer.

My advice is that if your contact page is the main way that you invite potential customers to connect with you, then it goes in your main nav. If not, just link it in your footer – but create this page so that people have a direct way to get to you. If you’re a newer business or blog, you won’t want to miss out on some of the opportunities that come from people finding your contact page and getting in touch with you.

There are some ways to limit spam that comes through your contact form, by the way.

• Add a honeypot section to your contact form
• Ask qualifying questions in your contact form and make them required in order for people to submit it
• Add reCAPTCHA to your website or contact form
• Not adding your email address directly to your contact page (People scrape websites for email addresses and will send you junk/spam or sell your email address, sadly. Booooo.)

This’ll knock out most of the automated spam and a lot of the non-automated spam, as well. Woohoo!

 

Work with me page (If you’re a service-based business owner)

Maybe the most important page on your whole dang site. People can’t book with you or buy from you if they don’t know what you offer!

The most important thing to keep in mind for this website page is that you need to clearly explain what you do so that the viewer is not confused and is pretty much immediately clear on whether your service or product is for them.

A common pitfall for service/work with me pages is to use vague wording or to try to make your products appealing to absolutely everyone. Be incredibly clear about who will benefit from your work and what they can expect from you.

Depending on how many services you offer, you may want multiple of these pages.

A marketing agency will probably have several pages for their services – maybe one for web design, one for SEO, and another for email marketing services.

But a personal branding photographer may only have one page, laying out their package options for their services.

It’s best to keep things as simple as possible, so if you find yourself dealing with too much information on one page and things are getting cramped, that’s a sign to consider adding a new page or condensing down your website copy.

Here’s what should probably be included on your work with me page:

• Who your service is for
• What it’s called
• How much it costs (Or at least a general idea or starting price)
• What they can expect to get out of it
• What’s included
• A quick summary of what it’s like to work with you on this kind of project/service (Adding “steps” or “phases” of your typical project can be a good idea.)
• How to book the project or take the next steps to contact you

This is a lot of info, so keeping your copy concise will be key here. Take full advantage of using headings, subheadings, and small paragraphs to create scannable content that will leave users clear on whether your services are for them or not.

 

Sales page(s)

Do you sell any digital products or online services? If so, you’ll probably benefit from having a sales page dedicated to each of them.

If you’ve got a lot of products, then pick your best sellers to make sales pages for, for now.

A sales page that converts has a few things in common:

• A hero section (the top section) featuring a headline that hooks the viewer in if your product is what they’re looking for
• A few “buy” buttons that contract with the rest of the page. They need to be HELLA OBVIOUS and should not blend in with the background.
• The messaging on your page should be speaking directly to your ideal customer. What are their pain points? How will buying this product help them? Be specific here because if they’re confused or not interested, they’re leaving.
• The price of the item should be clearly visible.
• A mockup or some kind of visual of your product. People like to see something tangible whether or not what they’re receiving is 100% digital.
• Testimonials for your product.
• A return policy and a disclaimer, if necessary.
• A cohesive design that doesn’t distract from the content of the page. If your sales page design is too busy and all over the place, people are more likely to get overwhelmed. There’s already a lot of info on a sales page, so try to keep things uncluttered!

 

Other ideas for your sales page:

• A quick sales video introducing yourself and showing people the tangible results of using your product.
• Logos of companies or clients you’ve worked with.
• Video testimonials from customers or clients.
• An FAQ section.
• A product tour or behind the scenes look.

 

404 page

This is the page people land on when they try to follow a link to your site that doesn’t exist or is spelled incorrectly.

This’ll happen a lot more than you think because you might change a link on your site and forget to add a redirect to the new URL.

Someone could also link to your site and misspell part of the URL.

Normal stuff, but a lot of the time when people land on your 404 page, they leave. Mostly because 404 pages are extreme bummers.

If you create a custom 404 page that serves as a helpful landing page for your visitors to find what they are looking for, you have a higher chance of keeping anyone who ends up there on your site.

Adding some helpful info to your 404 page keeps people interested. I’d suggest linking to your most-viewed content, a high-performing freebie or video, and a link to your services or products.

Just let the people know that this link doesn’t exist, but you can help them with x, y, and z. 

Adding a link back to your homepage and providing a search bar on your 404 page isn’t a bad idea, but I’d encourage you to go further than that by linking to some of your best stuff on this page to pique their interest enough to stick around.

 

Final thoughts on the pages you need on your business website

Obviously, this kind of article will never be 100% accurate because everyone’s business is different and that’s awesome. If you’re starting with a fresh, new site build, though, this is a pretty good list to consider!

There are plenty of other kinds of pages you may want to consider adding to your site, though. Here are a few other pages that come to mind that you may want to add to a business website.

• A shop page
• Custom category archives
• Custom product category archives
• Custom search archive
• Affiliate resource page (Somewhere for people who are affiliates for your products to access swipe files, promotional images, and other information that would be helpful for them to be a successful affiliate with you.)
• Portfolio
• A landing page, tripwire page, thank-you page, and other sales funnel pages
• Resource library
• Online course pages
• Client portal or other private pages for client/customer access only

 

Related reading:

• Work at Home Mom Jobs that Don’t Suck (12 Legitimate Job Ideas)
• 4 Solid Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website
• 5 Practical Habits to Actually Get Work Done as a Work At Home Mom

 

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