Website 101

Let’s begin with a simple question all small business owners should ask themselves – what are the most important pages for a web site? A web page is a singular page found on a website. Small businesses will have websites with multiple web pages that help the customer understand who you are and what you are selling. The information out there on the internet discussing web pages is endless, but let me dive deeper with you and show you the most important pages for a website.

Creating a business webpage is one of the crucial parts of any business, however, the necessary pages are often the most overlooked. You, as a business owner, should want to understand the importance of how to design a webpage so that it can add value to your small business website. Let’s expand on five important pages below: 

1. Home page
2. About us page 
3. Contact us page
4. Sales page
5. Legal page

Homepage

I’m sure most of you are wondering, what makes a homepage great? Well, the homepage is what we consider the heart of a website. Your homepage is responsible for drawing in your customers’ attention and piquing their interest to delve deeper into the pages of your website. You want to build a call to action (CTA) on the homepage that helps convince customers to invest in the product or service you are marketing or selling. Many business owners who build a website believe that the homepage should serve one purpose and be built around one action. Contrary to popular belief, your homepage should be designed with a purpose in order to serve a specific audience.

Take a look at a couple of examples of the best homepages in 2022 below. Recognize that these homepages aren’t stuffed with content or drowning with hundreds of images, instead they use graphics and short phrases to attract the attention of the visitors. 

Oatly.com and billieeilishfragrance.com sell simple, everyday items that many different people use. Oat milk and perfume, while they can be considered socially popular items, the homepages create an image that makes the products seem different than they actually are. The playfulness of the Oatly homepage and the sophisticated feel of the Billie Eilish fragrance homepage shows why they came out on top.

We know that sometimes a little goes a long way and these two examples envision just that. You know the saying, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression, well that’s the same when it comes to your homepage. Make it look engaging and impressive enough to your customers so you can get them to do what you want them to do – reach out and show interest in your business. HubSpot created a list of 12 critical elements that every home page should have, so let me encourage you to take a look at the list and self-reflect on what your homepage has to offer. 

About/Contact Us Page

We’re going to let you in on a secret …we don’t think having two pages, one page for each topic, is necessary. I believe blending the two together is more impactful. I know…crazy right? 🤪

Well let’s just think about it for a second…both the about and the contact us pages give your customers the opportunity to know who’s the face behind the website. The about us page tells the visitors who the business owner is as a person and why the business matters. Additionally, the contact us page gives visitors the chance to actually communicate with someone from the business via chat or a contact form in order for them to understand who they are and what their business represents.

Why need two separate pages, when they support one another? Below are images taken from the same About page. Taking a look at the navigation menu of the first image, they have included a link on the menu to the Contact us page. When clicked, this link drives the visitors to the bottom of the About us page (second image) where they have incorporated the Contact us page into the About us page almost seamlessly.  Lastly, the important thing to remember, neither one of the pages require a lot of text so blending them together just makes sense! Who wants to add a partially empty page to their website anyways?

Image 1: [ABOUT US] This image shows the top of the about page 

Image 2: [CONTACT US] This image shows the bottom of the about page. 

Sales page

Your company’s sales page is the most important page on your website because, if designed correctly, it turns your visitors into customers. It’s called a sales page because it is their 24/7 – 365 (never sleeps, never eats, can’t get sick or any other reason not to be standing at the ready) sales team. The sales page should show how your products or services can solve the visitors’ problems. While the description of the web page sounds pretty straightforward, this page requires extensive research in order to understand who you are selling your products or services to. Your sales page should answer these questions:

1. What is the ‘pain point’ the customer is experiencing?
2. What is the product or service I am trying to sell to consumers?
3. How do I make my offer irresistible to my visitors?

Let’s talk a little bit more about each of the questions above:

What is the ‘pain point’ the customer is experiencing?

This is simply asking, what is the problem the customer is dealing with? Let’s say, for example, Lisa is moving to a new city and needs to find a moving company. We can see that her ‘pain point’ is trying to figure out which moving company would best suit her needs. It can also go deeper than that, with her figuring out what moving company goes cross-country, what company fits into her budget, and if she feels like the employees will take care of her belongings. 

What is the product or service I am trying to sell to consumers? 

In this case, your small business offers moving help to anyone who might need it. While this can be a simple answer, the most important part is HOW you promote your business to all those who are in the market for finding a moving company. That’s where the third question below comes into play…

How do I make my offer irresistible to my visitors?

Lisa, as mentioned previously, is looking for a moving company that checks all of the boxes on her list of requirements. Well, it just so seems that your small business website promotes moving packages to help with anyone’s moving needs. You have bronze, silver, gold, and diamond packages that include different moving services that consumers can choose from.

Providing different packages is a marketing-effective approach but let’s take it one step further. In order to make your offer irresistible to visitors, you could add a discount to any of the moving packages for visitors who create an account online. This not only gives your visitors the opportunity to find the package that is most suitable, but the additional discount provides further incentive to turn a visitor into a customer.  

Legal page 

What’s a legal page? Well, a legal page is a section of a website that contains the terms and conditions, privacy policy, disclaimers, and any other information you need to share with your users.

Have you ever asked yourselves…why do we HAVE to have a legal page on our website? Isn’t it a bit unnecessary? On the contrary, it’s actually important to have a legal page added to your website for different reasons. Granted, we all know the legal terms and conditions are undeniably the most boring part of anything, but the main reason you need a legal page is two-fold:

1. It helps protect both parties in a transaction – basically, it protects you (the seller) and the customer in case something goes wrong. The terms and conditions help limit both parties’ liability – especially if your customer tries to take you to court or if the protection of your content is ever questioned. 
2. The legal page helps establish mutual trust between you and your users – before any kind of purchase takes place, the terms and conditions help show the user and the business owner the agreement between one another. This gives them both the understanding of how important it is to trust one another and believe that both parties will hold up their end of the bargain. 

While we both know this page doesn’t contain any content related to what the business is actually selling, it helps protect everyone involved whether they are selling or purchasing a product or service.  

Every business owner wants a website that does two things: turns visitors into customers and makes them money. Adding all five of these necessary pages to your website will help you do just that. Be creative, be engaging, and be willing to build a website that not only listens to your customers, but it also represents the brand you have built.