If you want your business to come across as impressive to your prospective customers, your website needs to be professional. A professional website leads to higher conversion rates and ultimately an increase in your bottom line. And while there are numerous pages a business website can include, there are a few primary pages every website needs to include to engage and convert.

Knowing which pages to include front-and-center on your site is vital to providing a quality user experience and in this article we’ll detail what those pages are and what content you should include to have to best opportunity to achieve conversion.

Your website is primarily a selling tool for your business, so it’s vital to create pages that sell your business and the services or products you provide. While there are many pages your business website can include, there are a few primary pages every website must have:

01. HOMEPAGE

Your homepage is the virtual front door to your business and is the first page visitors typically land on when they visit your website.  Since users typically spend less than seven seconds deciding whether to stay on your site or navigate elsewhere, it’s important to keep it clean, simple to navigate and be sure the content is short and easy to digest.

Your homepage sets to overall one for the remainder of your site, so take thoughtful planning as to the written and visual content and layout is vital. A good rule of thumb is at a minimum to include a main tagline or sales message, some featured content (blog posts, services or products), and a main call-to-action. Use headlines, sub-headlines and eye-catching imagery to break up copy and provide the most important information front and center. Pique the user’s curiosity just enough so that they want to learn more about your business and navigate further into your site instead of overwhelming them with too much information.

GOAL: You want your homepage content to attract and direct your customers to take a desired action. What is that action?

Make sure your homepage answers these key questions:

• Who You Are

• Who You Help (Your Value Proposition)

• What You Can Do For Them

• Where they should go next (navigation or calls-to-action)

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02. ABOUT PAGE

The About Page is one of the most visited pages on a website. And for good reason, people want to know more about you and your business. However, keep in mind customers/clients care about what you can do for THEM more than they care all ABOUT you. Visitors come to your About page not for a long list of your accomplishments or your CV but to learn how you can help them as a result of your depth of expertise or experience. So be sure to position your content in a way that tells your story while establishing credibility and trust.

What makes you unique from your competition and why should an potential customer choose you?

GOAL: Use this page to convince your customers that you understand their needs and to establish credibility and trust.

03. SERVICES OR SALES PAGE

Your homepage introduces your services, but your services page SELLS them. So sell them! Clearly describe your services in a compelling way that tells customers what benefits they will get. Answer any questions potential customers typically have, either through an FAQ’s section or throughout your written content. And don’t forget to direct them where or how to purchase with calls-to-action.

GOAL: Make sure your services page communicates what your services are, what benefit a customer will get from them and direct them how to purchase the service.

04. CONTACT PAGE

A contact page seems pretty basic and straightforward but that doesn’t make it any less important to your website. The contact page requires a lot of various elements, not just a contact form slapped on a page with your email address.

If you have a physical location, list your address as well as a phone number and email address. Include your hours, even if you are a freelance entrepreneur it’s important to establish your working hours clearly on your site. And don’t forget to be clear about your response time. If you respond within 48 hours of receipt, list that! Set expectations at first contact with a potential customer and your communication will go a lot more smoothly.  

GOAL: Think about the information you would like to capture from users, as well as the user journey upon successful submission. What responses will a user receive? Is there an automation that occurs after their first contact via email or contact form?

05. BLOG

So many businesses ignore the importance of a blog however a blog can be the primary traffic driver to your site, help legitimize your knowledge and value and establish reputation and credibility for your business. More importantly, if SEO is important to your business (and it should be), search engines give preference to websites with regularly updated content. And since your primary pages tend to be pretty static, a blog is the perfect way to engage with potential customers and provide ongoing, relevant content. Even blogging at least twice a month can be more beneficial than not blogging at all. Twice a month sounds pretty doable, right?

GOAL: Create a content calendar and write blog posts relevant to your area of expertise. Target your customers common problems and help them solve them.

Begin your website plan with these pages and make sure your design, content and calls-to-action are seamless before moving on to your secondary pages. Each of these pages should have a clear purpose. What do you want a user to do when they come to your site? What action do you want them to take next? How will you navigate them throughout your site? These are all vital questions to address as you develop your website strategy.

With each of these website pages, ask the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the page and how does it contribute to my business? 

• What do I want the user to do next after consuming the page content? 

• How does the content on this page relate back to the user?