Creating a stunning, strategic website is probably the best thing you can do for your business. Especially if you are selling, marketing, or serving people online.
Having a killer website means you can be making sales or getting inquiries while you sleep. It can make discovery calls easy-peasy for you, because leads are already convinced they want to work with you by the time you get on the call.
Except, if you’ve ever worked on a website before, or even opened a website builder like Squarespace, Showit, Wix, etc, then you probably have realized there are A LOT of details that go into creating a website.
Even mediocre websites will have hundreds of details you have to decide on (where to put a button, what colors to use, how it connects to your links, etc.) Professional websites that are going to make you the big bucks? Those are made up of a thousand tiny decisions.
Luckily, hiring a service provider, using templates, or booking a consultation can help make some of these decisions for you.
In fact, that’s a huge task I complete for each client I work with: I help them make all the tiny decisions that need to go into making their websites, even ones they didn’t know they needed to make.
And today, I’m going to help you make this decision: which pages are essential to include in your website.
These are the top 5, non-negotiable, must-haves for creating a website that will make you sales and bolster your brand. So, if you’re ready to build a high-converting website, start uploading these pages into your website builder.
Homepage
To absolutely no-one’s surprise, you need a homepage on your website. This page is the “digital first impression” you’ll give people when they land on your site, and it’s gotta be a good one.
When you’re planning out your homepage, avoid this super common mistake most people make on their website: don’t make it about you.
Your homepage should speak to the problems that you solve for people. Talk about your unique solution to help them solve this problem.
Most importantly, your homepage should tell people what to do next. Do you want them to schedule a call with you? Add that as your call to action. Do you want them to buy your course? Direct them to the sales page.
Homepages are what convince people to stay on your website. So make sure you build your homepage in a way that’s helpful and empathetic to what they’re going through, not just using it as an opportunity to talk about yourself.
About Page
Speaking of talking about yourself, that’s what an about page is for, right?
Kind of. Your about page should help build trust with the users on your site, but you don’t have to give your entire autobiography to do this. (In fact, if you use your about page to write a novel about yourself, that’s probably going to hurt your trust factor, not help it.)
Your about page should help people understand why you are the right person to help solve their problem. Sure, you can talk about your experience and credentials, but they should play a background role when it comes to selling the transformation you can help people achieve.
For example, if you’re a health coach, use your about page to talk about how the practices you use with your clients to achieve their health goals have helped you meet your own goals.
Or if you’re a business consultant, talk about how your signature process for helping your clients was refined through your real-life experiences.
It’s important to remember that your about page is not LinkedIn. People don’t care about how “professional” or “legit” you look on paper, as long as they come to like you and trust you to solve their problems. Be conversational in your copy, so people feel like they’re meeting a real person they can trust.
Services Page
When people have decided that they like and trust you, they will want to know how they can work with you. This is why you need a services page.
If you’re not sure how to structure your services yet (maybe you’re still sending custom proposals for each client you work with) a services page is going to make your life so much easier.
It’s a good rule of thumb to have a low, middle, and high tier offer on your services page. This way, potential clients can have a choice for working with you, and you don’t have to come up with something on the fly for each inquiry.
Your services pages should also talk about the features, benefits, and transformation of each of your offers. Including a process or philosophy around your work is also a good idea, as well as some testimonials that help sell the impact each offer makes.
Everything on your services page needs to help a potential client make a decision about working with you. That’s why this is a great place to include FAQs, testimonials, and any free resources that demonstrate your expertise.
Contact Page
Ah, the most commonly overlooked and neglected page on any website.
Your poor contact page can seriously help your client process and result in you closing more sales- if you’re strategic about the copy.
You don’t need a lot of copy for your contact page (short, simple, and to-the-point is best) but you do need to continue to guide the user through the client journey.
For this reason, be sure your contact page includes information such as response times, business hours, or any other ways to get in contact with you. Tell them the preferred way of connecting with you, whether that’s through embedding a calendar link, sharing a phone number, or providing an intake form.
I usually have my clients include a “what to expect” section for their inquiries. This helps eliminate any confusion people have after applying to work with them, since they’ll know when to expect a reply and if they need to prepare anything for their discovery call.
Landing Page
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with business owners, it’s that we’re not all talking about the same thing when we say “landing page.”
So let me be perfectly clear: you should include a landing page for people to opt in to your email list on your website.
Why? So you can easily share this link with people, and so you don’t have to embed an opt-in form every time you write a blog post or update your website copy.
Email lists take a long time to build, so I want you to be set up for success from the first day you hit “publish” on your website. Trust me, providing a landing page for opting in to your email list will save you so many headaches in the future.
Ok, so those are the 5 essential website pages you need on your site, but if you’re an overachiever, I wanted to provide you with a couple more pages that can help make your website a great place for your dreamy leads to hang out.
Bonus pages that should have sparkling copy
Depending on the website builder or template you’re using, your site might already include pages like these. If that’s the case, it’s important that you add magnetic, on-brand copy to these pages so the messaging throughout your site can remain consistent.
- Freebie page: Have a free resource or lead magnet for your brand? Give it it’s own page so you can send it to people easily or link it in other places. This way, people won’t have to scroll through your whole site to find your freebie.
- Blog page: Blog pages don’t usually require much copy since they’re just showing where all your latest blog posts are published, but that doesn’t mean you can’t include a couple things to be extra helpful, such as categories, a quick bio, or a link to a free resource.
- Instagram links page: It will improve your SEO if you create a custom links page on your website rather than using an external link builder. Plus, you’ll have full control over messaging and user experience if you host it on your website.
- Error 404 page: Broken links suck, but if you can at least make your error page on brand, you can strengthen your messaging. Customize your error 404 page to get a laugh and improve user experience if you can.
- Privacy policy: As a website copywriter, this is the one page of your site I will never touch, but you need it to make your website legal, so I’m just letting you know.
- Sales page: Do you have a course, membership, or program that you do launches around? Then you need a savvy sales page. Typically, sales pages will be separate from your services, because the offers tend to be more passive or more of a one-time investment for people. Sales pages are also pretty long compared to your other pages, since selling something more high-ticket will take more strategy and copy.
- Resources page: If you have a library of freebies, downloadables, podcast episodes, or affiliate links, it’s a good idea to include them all in one place. This can help you be a helpful resource to your audience (so they keep coming back!)
So there you have it! Enough pages for your website to keep even the busiest copywriter typing away!
Want to have someone take point on writing your website?
Book your discovery call: Listen, I know it’s a huge, monstrous task to build a website, and that’s before you even have to decide what words to use. So if you want someone to write those words for you, let’s hop on a disco call to chat about strategic, conversational website copy.
Check out my copywriting services: Not sure which service is right for you and your business? Take a look at the different copywriting services I offer.
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