While you do want your website to be unique and stand out, there are certain pages that every website should have to provide a good user experience for everyone that visits your website.
Your website is one of the first experiences a potential customer has with your business, you want to make sure you're portraying a positive brand image to those visitors.
In this article, we will go over the pages that every website should have to succeed and provide a great user experience for everyone that visits it.
Homepage
A website's homepage makes that all important first impression, and for many visitors, it will be their introduction to your business. An effective homepage should immediately convey what you offer and entice visitors to explore further.
When crafting your homepage content, focus on highlighting your core products, services or mission. The goal of your homepage should be getting the user to visit other pages on your site. Make sure it's easy to navigate, has engaging copy and eye-catching visuals to pique their interest.
An inviting, uncluttered design allows users to instantly find what they are looking for. Prominently feature calls-to-action to guide visitors to important pages like contact, shopping cart or product pages.
Remember, your homepage has seconds to convince visitors to stay and explore your site. An optimized homepage both informs and intrigues, while reflecting the essence of your brand. With compelling content and strategic design, your homepage should make a stellar first impression so that you're turning visitors into customers.
About Page
Your company's About Us page is where a user would go to find more out about who you are. Don't make it just a dry corporate overview, keep it engaging by bringing your brand's personality to life.
Focus first on telling your company's story in a compelling way. Share your founding vision, values and purpose. Outline milestones that mark your growth and achievements. Also convey your brand positioning - what makes you stand out from competitors?
The About Us page is also a chance to convey your capabilities at a high level. A website’s about page is significant for companies looking to attract investors and capitalize on potential gains in the growth stage. An about page that connects emotionally and establishes shared values builds trust with your visitors.
Note: If you want to have your about section on your homepage that's also fine. But if that's the case, try and keep it a bit shorter. You don't want your site users to have to wade through walls of text on the most important page of your site.
Blog Page
A blog is no longer just a nice addition to a website, it has become an essential tool for content marketing and SEO. By publishing fresh, valuable content regularly, your blog can drive traffic, boost engagement, and help your site rank higher.
An effective blog allows you to share insights on industry news and trends. You can highlight developments at your own business, or create posts that target specific keywords. This not only keeps existing visitors informed, but expands your reach to new audiences. Studies show websites with blogs gain over 50% more leads.
While your blog page serves as an archive of all posts, it should be dynamic rather than static. You should be publishing new content on a regular basis, keeping the page relevant and timely. This ensures people have a reason to return and check your blog for the latest updates. But don't focus solely on trending topics, you want to add in evergreen content that is timeless; meaning a blog post that can get you traffic for years to come, not just the latest news of the week.
Remember, a blog keeps your site fresh and demonstrates your business is an authority in its field not only for your site visitors, but also to Google when ranking your website.
Related: Why Blogging Is So Important for SEO
Product Page
If applicable to your business, the product page is where visitors will decide if what you're offering matches their needs. For ecommerce sites, each product should have its own page with images, descriptions, specs, pricing and reviews. For SaaS or B2B, explain features that lead into demos, trials and signups.
An effective product page focuses on benefits over features. Go beyond just specs, paint a picture of how the product improves the customer's life or solves their problem.
For large product catalogs, have an overview page where visitors can browse categories or filter products by attributes like color, size or rating. This page links to individual product pages for all the details.
The goal is to provide the information needed to aid the buyer's journey. Size guides, recommendations for similar products, reviews and FAQs help them evaluate if it's the right fit. Guidance on purchasing or getting started reduces friction and increases the likelyhood you will get a sale from them.
Service Page
Effectively showcasing your services requires strategic organization so visitors can easily find and understand your offerings. If you provide numerous services, avoid an overwhelming dump of content. Instead, create a streamlined main page that highlights your core capabilities.
This main services page should be structured for clarity. Group related services into clear categories or target markets. Write straightforward but compelling titles and descriptions for each offering - focus on communicating the value they provide.
For services that require more details, link off to dedicated pages. These auxiliary pages can dive deeper into pricing, project timelines, deliverables, customer stories and other specifics. Videos and images of the service in action are also great additions.
No matter how you organize your services pages, keep the visitor's journey in mind. Use clear navigation, descriptive headers and concise copy to help guide them to the most relevant services quickly. Sectioning off and linking to supporting pages improves findability while keeping pages clean. With a thoughtful structure and value-focused content, your services shine.
Contact Page
A dedicated contact page is a must for every website, how do you expect your visitors to contact you without it? You might have other contact forms sprinkled throughout your site, but you don't want to make the user spend time searching for it. While you can include basic contact info in your footer, a full contact page makes engaging with your business seamless.
More than just displaying your phone, email, and address, an optimal contact page has an inquiry form. A contact form also lets you collect important details upfront, like name, company, and reason for contacting.
Beyond logistics, use your contact page to reassure visitors you want to hear from them. Express that you welcome any questions or feedback.
Frequently Asked Questions Page
Are you tired of answering the same questions from everybody that calls your business? Then it’s time to create an FAQ page. Strategically place your FAQ page in the main site navigation. Write questions based on common customer and prospect inquiries about products, services, policies, and more. Give each answer helpful detail and insights that resolve confusion or hesitations.
FAQ answers are also opportunities to gently lead visitors to desired actions - clicking through to purchase, contacting sales, downloading resources etc. Wherever possible, guide them further down the sales funnel.
Refund and Return Policy Page
If you're a business that sells products, a refund and return policy page is a must. This sets clear expectations around exchanging or sending items back. Customers want to buy with confidence, so detailing your policies removes doubt.
Though digital products don't require return capabilities, physical item merchants should outline specifics like:
Timeframes for returns/exchanges
Conditions items must meet
Who pays for return shipping
How refunds are issued
Keep things simple but informative. Make it easy for customers to get the main point of the returns policy without overwhelming them with a wall of text.
Testimonials
Testimonials are great for building credibility. You can hype up your products and services all you want, but having genuine customer feedback can go a long way in lending your business more credibility.
Reviews can come in the form of written text, videos, star ratings, links to reviews, magazine articles and interviews.
And remember, NEVER pay for positive reviews. Ultimately it will come back to hurt your business if word gets out that you're doing that.
Privacy Policy Page
If you are a website that will be gathering user data then you need to have a privacy policy page, and may be legally required depending on your location and visitors. This page openly explains how you collect, use and protect data.
Craft your policy to comply with major regulations like GDPR and CCPA. This ensures you respect visitor privacy regardless of their location. Clearly disclose what information your site gathers, whether it's through cookies, forms, analytics or other means. Explain why data is gathered and how it benefits the user experience.
Terms and Conditions Page
I'm sure we've all heard the meme about never reading T&Cs and just blindly accepting what it say. Well believe it or not, some people do read these! While similar to a privacy policy, a website's terms and conditions page serves a different purpose. This page sets clear ground rules for appropriate use of the site and its offerings. This is especially important for sites with user-generated content tools like comments, forums or upload features.
The terms and conditions outline proper conduct, prohibited uses, user account details, and other binding policies around using your website. Having these documented protects your business should issues like infringement, illegal activity or harassment occur.
To Conclude: Pages Every Website Should Have
The goal is to make your website as easy to navigate as possible. Your customers want a smooth and seamless experience and with clearly defined pages, you can achieve that.
And as for your goals, whichever they may be in the business and marketing world, Open World Digital has you covered! From SEO to customer conversions, we can help you achieve those goals.
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