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Essential Web Pages That Every Great Website Needs

Essential Web Pages That Every Great Website Needs

When it comes to building a website for your business, it can sometimes be overwhelming to determine exactly what information is necessary to create a great website. It can be tempting to put as much information on your site as possible to make sure your clients and customers are well-informed, but in some cases, less can be more. And this can work both ways! Sometimes a little more information is required to make sure your site visitors can find exactly what they’re looking for.

But how do you provide information while keeping your site clean and easy to navigate? Your website’s specific web pages are a great place to start. Not only will your web pages act as a navigation tool to help people get around your site, but they can also be a great way to organize information into smaller, bite-sized chunks so you don’t overwhelm your site visitors.

In this post, we’ll break down some of the essential website pages that every website should have, and how they can differ based on whether your website is service-based or product-based.

Young women designing website

What Website Pages All Sites Actually Need

Your website is an important part of your business, so ensuring you have the right information in the right places is essential to making sure your customers find what they’re looking for. Whether your website is purely informational, provides information on the services you offer, or provides customers with a space to shop your selection of products, being conscious of how your website is laid out and what content it houses is key to providing a great customer experience.

So, what are the essential web pages needed to build a great website? Let’s start with the basics. Every website should have these essential web pages:

  • Homepage – Make a great first impression! Your homepage should let your customers know who you are and what you do and should be easy to navigate. Avoid cluttering your homepage up with too many images or wild colour palettes.
  • About Page – Elaborate on your brand’s vision and accomplishments. Rather than overloading customers with information about you and your business, instead, highlight how you and your business can help them with their needs.
  • Contact Page – Make it easy for customers to get in touch. Communication is key to building solid relationships, so your contact page should make it easy for customers to reach out. Most contact us pages will contain a form that customers can fill out to contact you, but you can also include your company/brand’s physical address, phone number, and email.

Think of these web pages as the foundation of your website. They are the basic stepping stones that your customers will encounter before getting to the pages they’re actively looking for, which are often the pages that break down the products or services you offer. Ensuring you have a solid website foundation will make the overall customer experience much better for anyone visiting your website.

What Service-Based Businesses Need

When it comes to creating web pages that break down the services that you or your business offer, it’s important to remember that your website should be working for you. A great website will help generate leads for you or your business, so making sure you’ve got enough information available without overloading your customers is important. Instead of creating a single web page that contains all the information about the services you offer, try sprinkling little bits of information throughout your website.

For example, you could add a few simple images to your homepage that link out to individual service packages you offer. This is a great way to initially grab your customers’ attention and pull them further into your website, but it also makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. Another thing to be mindful of is the amount of information you’re providing your customers. The last thing you want is to overwhelm them with huge paragraphs full of information. Instead, try to keep descriptions of your services concise and to the point. This could also provide you with a great opportunity to encourage potential customers to reach out directly if they’re looking for more specific information regarding your services and offerings.

Leaving product reviews on mobile device

What Product-Based Websites Need

Online shopping and eCommerce have become increasingly popular over the past few years, so having a great product-based website is essential to providing a fantastic customer experience and fostering repeat customers. Here are a few things that every product-based website should have:

  • Mobile-Friendly design
  • Easy/simple navigation
  • Clear shopping cart and checkout buttons
  • Ratings/reviews for items

When it comes time to build the product-focused side of your website, it’s important to keep your customer in mind. Most people do most of their online shopping right from their phones, so it’s essential that your website is mobile-friendly and will make finding products easy. There’s nothing worse than trying to look at a product on your phone and having the page not be optimized for mobile. Your site’s navigation also plays into this. Depending on the size of your online shop, you might benefit from having specific products broken down into specific categories to make them easy to look through. Also, having a search bar that is both easy to find and easy to use is essential to your site’s overall navigation.

It’s rare that someone purchases a product without first looking at its reviews, so making sure that you have an easy-to-find review section for each product will help your customers make informed purchases. A review section is also a great way to encourage customers to come back to your site after they make a purchase so they can rave about the products they love.

The main purpose of a product-based website is to sell your products, so making sure that your website has a shopping cart button that’s easy to find is essential. This will make it easy for customers to add items to their cart as they’re browsing, then easily check out once they’re done.

Business woman writing blog post on her laptop

Is a Blog Page Necessary?

One web page that always seems to come into question when building out a website is a blog page. While it might be directly referred to as a ‘Blog’ on some websites, it’s also often referred to as a ‘News’ page. You might ask yourself if a blog page is really necessary to have on your website, but in some cases, it can be a huge benefit if you have the time and resources to spend on it.

The main draw for having a blog page on your website is the SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, benefits. To keep it simple, SEO refers to the process of improving your website to make it more visible when people search for products or services that are related to you or your business. Writing blogs that contain keywords that directly relate to the products and services you offer is a great way to boost the overall SEO value of your website and can be another great way to draw in potential customers. If you have the time and writing skills to commit to writing some blog posts for your website, adding a blog web page can be very beneficial.

While building a website can sometimes be daunting, this breakdown of the essential web pages can help make the overall process a bit easier to tackle and will help you build a great website that will impress your customers and grow your business!

 

 

Want to build a website, but aren’t sure where to start? We can help! Our experienced team of web developers can help you create a stunning website to showcase your products and services. Contact us today to set up a discovery session!

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