What is important for a website? This is a very common question that online entrepreneurs ask when they’re in the process of developing a website.
While every website and business are unique and have differing online needs, website visitors and potential customers have set expectations for your website. There’s certain information that they expect to find when browsing your site.
In this article, we’re going to break it down for you, listing the most important and MUST HAVE pages and elements for your business website.
Whether you’re starting your website from scratch or you’re revamping an old site, it’s extremely important that it’s up to date and responsive in design.
Today’s websites have to be adaptable to multiple screens—this means that as users switch from their laptop to their smartphone or tablet, the site will change with it and maintain appearance and functionality.
More and more people are using their smartphones and mobile devices to browse the internet, making it vital that your site looks good and displays the content the way you intended on these devices.
Additionally, having a responsive website can help boost your SEO. Google rewards websites with responsive designs by moving them up on the search engine results page.
An outdated design or one that doesn’t cater to the user experience will not serve your business, no matter what you’re selling or providing.
What is important for a website when it comes to website pages? We go through the top ten most important website pages to include as you’re designing your site below:
1. Home Page
This is the page that most people will see FIRST, so it’s important that it does its job which is to tell site visitors who you are and what you do. The content on your homepage should immediately communicate your offer and capture the attention of your audience—within SECONDS.
You need your homepage to be well designed, fast, and professional looking. Website visitors typically give a site about 0.05 seconds to convince them to stay before they move on. Don’t shoo people away with a poorly designed homepage!
Here’s what you should include on your homepage:
A short description of who you are and what you do or offer.
A brief explanation of your products and services.
Some information about how you can help your potential customers and why they should choose to do business with you.
2. About Page
When it comes to defining what is important for a website, never underestimate the power of your about page. People like doing business with people and businesses that they have a connection to. And search engines LOVE a great about page too!
Your website visitors want to know who the people are behind the brand. They want to put a human face to the name, they want to hear your story, and they want to feel a connection to you and your brand before they choose to open their wallets or engage further with your business.
The about page is statistically one of the most visited pages on any website.
Here’s what to include on your about page:
Who you are
Some personal or company history
What makes you stand apart from your competition
Any special achievements you’ve received
3. FAQ
Including an FAQ page on your website helps promote better user experience. The FAQ page is the space where you can answer the questions that your customers ask most frequently. Basically, it’s your opportunity to tell your potential customers everything they need to know before making a purchasing decision on ONE page.
This page will not only provide value to your website visitors, but it will save you time by avoiding having to answer the questions on an individual basis. AND, this is a great place to naturally capitalize on those keywords too!
Here’s what to include on your FAQ page:
The most common questions your customers ask along with need-to-know information
Honest, clear answers
Call to actions that persuade the customer to take the next step and buy whatever you’re selling
Links out to other pages on your own website that help clarify and support your answer even further
4. Testimonials/Reviews Page
This is your chance to build trust and show off the positive reviews that you and/or your company have received. The most important consideration when it comes to reviews is that they are authentic. You can add authenticity to your reviews by including photos, full names, and maybe even a link to their business or social media profile.
Pro tip: Ask your satisfied clients or customers to leave you a video review—there’s nothing more authentic and credible than seeing and hearing a real customer for yourself.
5. Contact Page
What is important for a website to be successful is to provide multiple ways for your customers to get in touch with you. Of course, you’ll want your contact information all over your website, but it’s still important to have a designated contact page so that visitors can see all the methods you offer in one neat place.
Here’s what to include:
Links to your social media accounts
Your mailing address
Phone number
Email address or contact form
Business hours (if applicable)
6. Blog
The blog on your website is a section that contains multiple other pages filled with blog posts, but it’s important that you have a designated landing page where users can reach and review your blog posts.
If you think that blogging is just for “bloggers,” think again! It’s actually one of the greatest FREE marketing tools you have as a business. It’s your opportunity to provide value to your audience, drive more traffic to your website, and increase your sales.
Creating blog posts for your website allows you to give your brand a voice and creates a space where you can share your expertise, engage with customers, and communicate your brand’s story and mission. You just need to make sure that you can consistently keep updating it. If you can do that Google will reward you with SEO points because they see that you are keeping your website fresh and up-to-date with useful information for the ones who need it the most.
Learn the best SEO practices for your blog in this post.
7. Privacy Policy Page
When you’re considering what is important for a website, a privacy policy page may not even cross your mind, but it’s a MUST for every website, and legally it's your duty to include one if you are:
Capturing emails and contact information
Running Remarketing Campaigns
Selling on your website
The privacy policy lets the visitor know what you’ll do with the personal information that they give you. You need to let your visitors know how any of their personal information collected will be used (e.g. advertising, emails, cookies, etc.) and whether or not you share that information with third parties.
Set up your privacy policy, put it on a website page, and adhere to it!
Have no idea where to start with your privacy policy? Start here!
8. Products and/or Services Pages
Your products and services pages are your chance to really take a deep dive into what you offer. Begin each product or service with a short summary about what it is, how it can help solve your customer's problem, why customers should purchase from you, and other relevant information like pricing.
The structure that Google (and visitors like best) is when you have one landing page that gives you an overview of everything you offer, but then links out to more detailed pages for each individual service! This allows you to give much more information on what it’s like to work with you/own your product, more reviews and what your offerings include. The more people know, the more people are likely to buy!
As your designing your website, don’t forget to include CTAs (call to actions)! These are graphics on your website that prompt visitors to take the action that you’d like them to take.
Ask yourself this question – What do you want people to do once they land on your website? Is it to call you? Set up an appointment? Purchase something? That will be your first clue as to what your main CTA should say. And this main call to action should go up at the top right corner of your website and be in a bright color that stands out from the rest of your website. It should also be sprinkled throughout your webpages as well. And YES, there are ways to have a different color button that still looks good with your website.
With CTA’s you can get creative, spark some enthusiasm, excitement, and create urgency!
Final Thoughts
When it comes to what is important for a website, don’t over-complicate it. Think about what your behaviors are when you visit a website—what pages do you look for? Do you like reading about the company? Are in interested in seeing their whole list of services? Do you like when they make it easy to get in touch?
Now that you’re armed with all the important elements for your website, it’s time to get to work creating a space that efficiently promotes your brand while providing your visitors with the kind of experience that will increase their likelihood of engaging further with your business and convert to paying customers.
Step up your website game even more and learn how to properly use images to create a better user experience and get a higher Google rank by clicking here.