The Most Important Pages on Your Website - The Definitive Australian Guide
Our guide outlines the five most important pages for your website, optional (but recommended) pages, must-know steps to prepare your website's content and frequently asked questions
Updated 29 April 2022
Summary
Our guide explains the most important pages for the average Australian business looking to boost revenue with a website. We cover:
Know this: There's no reason to hold off preparing or improving a website if you're not comfortable with writing the content. Our section on preparing your website's content below makes the process easy affordable and gives you a result that will most likely exceed your expectations. Best of all, by investing in answering questions about your business up front, you'll contribute to content that resonates with potential customers reading your website.
Summary
- Too often, websites lack the information that their users expect them to provide, which costs a potential customer or sale.
- While we believe a website is better than no website at all, there are a lot of gains to be had from investing the time to structure your website correctly.
- Our experience bringing thousands of Australian small businesses online has proven that excellent content is essential to a successful website.
- "Excellent content" means everything your business does is clearly explained in plain English to an average reader looking to buy what you sell.
- However, knowing what to include, how to organise your content, photos and other details is unfamiliar to most business owners. This guide helps to guide you through the entire process, step by step.
Our guide explains the most important pages for the average Australian business looking to boost revenue with a website. We cover:
- The Five Most Important Pages for Your Website
- Optional (but Recommended) Pages
- How to Prepare Your Website's Content
- Frequently Asked Questions
Know this: There's no reason to hold off preparing or improving a website if you're not comfortable with writing the content. Our section on preparing your website's content below makes the process easy affordable and gives you a result that will most likely exceed your expectations. Best of all, by investing in answering questions about your business up front, you'll contribute to content that resonates with potential customers reading your website.
The Five Most Important Pages for Your Website
1. Home page
The homepage is the first impression a potential customer has of your website. To help convert them to paying clients, the homepage needs to be clean and welcoming while explaining the unique benefits of the business.
The best homepages don't overload the user with content - instead, they briefly explain the service/products offered by bullet points and convey the business's experience in its industry. Overall, a good homepage will summarise the business in 2-3 paragraphs and reflect what's on the other pages.
2. About Us page
Potential customers want to trust a business; an about us page is essential to convey the team's professionalism. Team photos are highly recommended to put faces to names - website browsers connect and have a higher chance of converting when they see real people behind the business.
3. Services page
The services page is arguably the most critical page after the homepage. Potential customers are looking to see if you can deliver what they need to buy. For this reason, the services page needs to explain what you offer and what your point of difference is. If you have fixed prices, they should also be displayed here.
Pro tip: The best services page is concise but also detailed enough to answer all the questions a potential customer has about what your business offers. If you have photos of what you provide or sell, this is where they should go (unless a gallery is more appropriate - see below).
4. Contact page
A contact page should include as many contact points as possible - landline, mobile, business WhatsApp, email and an address. It should also include the areas the business serves (if applicable), a Google map of the address, parking details (if relevant) and any other directions to make a customer's visit as easy as possible.
5. Search (Functionality)
A search box should be added to a website's menu to help users quickly look for what they need to know. This provides a superior user experience and higher engagement.
The homepage is the first impression a potential customer has of your website. To help convert them to paying clients, the homepage needs to be clean and welcoming while explaining the unique benefits of the business.
The best homepages don't overload the user with content - instead, they briefly explain the service/products offered by bullet points and convey the business's experience in its industry. Overall, a good homepage will summarise the business in 2-3 paragraphs and reflect what's on the other pages.
2. About Us page
Potential customers want to trust a business; an about us page is essential to convey the team's professionalism. Team photos are highly recommended to put faces to names - website browsers connect and have a higher chance of converting when they see real people behind the business.
3. Services page
The services page is arguably the most critical page after the homepage. Potential customers are looking to see if you can deliver what they need to buy. For this reason, the services page needs to explain what you offer and what your point of difference is. If you have fixed prices, they should also be displayed here.
Pro tip: The best services page is concise but also detailed enough to answer all the questions a potential customer has about what your business offers. If you have photos of what you provide or sell, this is where they should go (unless a gallery is more appropriate - see below).
4. Contact page
A contact page should include as many contact points as possible - landline, mobile, business WhatsApp, email and an address. It should also include the areas the business serves (if applicable), a Google map of the address, parking details (if relevant) and any other directions to make a customer's visit as easy as possible.
5. Search (Functionality)
A search box should be added to a website's menu to help users quickly look for what they need to know. This provides a superior user experience and higher engagement.
Optional (but Recommended) Pages
1. Testimonials
Testimonials are immediate trust-building tools to help win more customers. If you don't have any testimonials, we suggest writing to ten recent clients and asking for 2-3 sentences each to help you publish a range of references. You should put a non-identifying name and date beside each testimonial, for example, "C. Walsh, March 2022", as this will build trust. The best testimonial pages are continually updated to show relevance and client engagement.
2. Frequently Asked Questions
'FAQs' as they're known, are increasingly popular on websites all over Australia. They are designed to answer all the common queries your customers ask. By publishing FAQs, you're gaining credibility and expert status, which helps build more trust with potential customers.
The best way to write an FAQs page is to make a list of all the questions leads have asked you and put some time into answering them in detail. A good list of FAQs is at least five, and you can keep an FAQs page updated as more questions come to mind.
3. Gallery (and sub-galleries)
A photo gallery is a popular feature if you're a business that manufacturers products or completes projects. For example, engineering firms, construction companies and general manufacturers often publish galleries. Other organisations using galleries include hairdressers, gyms, medical clinics (who want to show their facilities), vets and other animal industry businesses.
The optimal contents of a gallery include your facilities, recent projects or anything else that is client-facing or enhances your reputation. Don't be economical in gathering photos - the more you spend, the more your web designer has to work with as they will know what's best for your website's presentation.
4. News/Blog
Blogs are a great way to talk about news and updates in your industry, but many companies, unfortunately, publish thin and uninformative blog posts. People are busy - people don't read low-quality information because no one has time to do so, and Google won't get it in front of readers as it has low value.
Our view is simple - blogs need someone committed to publishing regular content, which can become a hassle and make the website look stale if the posts age too much. On the other hand, blogs are worth the investment if you have the resources to commit and have a content strategy.
Testimonials are immediate trust-building tools to help win more customers. If you don't have any testimonials, we suggest writing to ten recent clients and asking for 2-3 sentences each to help you publish a range of references. You should put a non-identifying name and date beside each testimonial, for example, "C. Walsh, March 2022", as this will build trust. The best testimonial pages are continually updated to show relevance and client engagement.
2. Frequently Asked Questions
'FAQs' as they're known, are increasingly popular on websites all over Australia. They are designed to answer all the common queries your customers ask. By publishing FAQs, you're gaining credibility and expert status, which helps build more trust with potential customers.
The best way to write an FAQs page is to make a list of all the questions leads have asked you and put some time into answering them in detail. A good list of FAQs is at least five, and you can keep an FAQs page updated as more questions come to mind.
3. Gallery (and sub-galleries)
A photo gallery is a popular feature if you're a business that manufacturers products or completes projects. For example, engineering firms, construction companies and general manufacturers often publish galleries. Other organisations using galleries include hairdressers, gyms, medical clinics (who want to show their facilities), vets and other animal industry businesses.
The optimal contents of a gallery include your facilities, recent projects or anything else that is client-facing or enhances your reputation. Don't be economical in gathering photos - the more you spend, the more your web designer has to work with as they will know what's best for your website's presentation.
4. News/Blog
Blogs are a great way to talk about news and updates in your industry, but many companies, unfortunately, publish thin and uninformative blog posts. People are busy - people don't read low-quality information because no one has time to do so, and Google won't get it in front of readers as it has low value.
Our view is simple - blogs need someone committed to publishing regular content, which can become a hassle and make the website look stale if the posts age too much. On the other hand, blogs are worth the investment if you have the resources to commit and have a content strategy.
How to Organise Your Website's Content
The best way to get your message across is to keep everything simple and on point. You can gather what's important and help your content writer by answering these questions to structure your home, about us and services pages.
1. Home page:
2. About us page:
3. Services Page
1. Home page:
- What is your business?
- List the services do you provide
- List any specialist work you do (if any)
- What things make your business stand out?
- List your catchphrase if you have one.
2. About us page:
- Name of the main business owner/director
- How many years of experience do you have?
- List any educational qualifications you have, e.g. degrees, certificates, training.
- Name any relevant companies or businesses you have worked in previously and how long.
- Note any areas of special interest or expertise you have in your field
- List any business accreditations you have
- List any industry associations you have (if any)
- When was the business established?
- Provide an estimate of how many clients you've serviced (in your years of experience)
- What regions do you service?
- How many people are in your business/team?
- Note any staff member names you would like to the biography and their role in the business.
- Provide any other relevant information you'd like to include in the company/individual bio.
3. Services Page
- List the categories of services you provide; you know your business best, you can provide as much information as you want, so feel free to elaborate if you can.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our list of common queries below helps you make the right decision for the content you want on your website.
How many pages do I need on my site? Do I need 3, 5, 10?
The most popular starting point is five pages. This will cover your homepage, about us, services, a gallery or testimonials page, and a contact page. Anything less than five pages can mean you risk not answering all of your potential customer's questions.
If you want additional pages, you can add them later, but the focus should always be to start with the essential core pages and make sure they are top-notch. Many web design agencies offer optional add-on pages such as galleries, blogs and
If you want additional pages, you can add them later, but the focus should always be to start with the essential core pages and make sure they are top-notch. Many web design agencies offer optional add-on pages such as galleries, blogs and
How many words should each page be?
Generally, the best practice for small business websites is around 300 words per page. This keeps things concise and provides enough detail to explain your point of difference, expertise and local focus (if applicable).
Is a testimonial page worthwhile?
For most businesses, yes. Testimonials are immediate trust-building tools to help win more customers. If you don't have any testimonials, we suggest writing to ten recent clients and asking for 2-3 sentences each to help you publish a range of references.
Should social media connect to my website, and where should it go?
Social media can be integrated into a website easily; many Australian businesses embed Facebook and Instagram on their homepage or 'news' page to demonstrate that their business is active and engaging with customers. If you want to integrate any social media channels, your web designer will be able to do this for a fixed one-off fee.
What content do I put on a website?
As outlined above, the minimum is a home page, about us page, services page and contact us page. Still, you may also want to include search functionality, a testimonials page, a gallery and/or integration of your social media. The four core pages are essential priorities if you want to get the basics up and running.
I don't have any content; what can I do?
We suggest using the question list above, completing the answers in as much detail as possible, and either sending it to your web designer (if they provided a content writing service) or engaging a specialised content writing service (outlined in the next FAQ).
If my web developer doesn't provide a content service, where can I get it written professionally?
We suggest considering Fiverr freelancer options to help you with your website's content. The best starting point is to complete the questions above in as much detail as possible and send it over. You can also list websites you like in the same industry so that the content writer can style the writing around what's best for engaging readers.
What do I do about images for my website? Do I take photos or buy stock images?
The most popular option is a combination of the two. Websites that have personalised about us photos (for example, of the team working at the organisation) often create more trust, so it's important to gather as many relevant photos as possible. Once done, the web designer will usually also use free stock images to fill the gaps as needed.
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