Now that you’re clear on what your business goals are and how your website can help you achieve them, you’re probably ready to take the next step. Whether you’re just starting to build a site or upgrading your existing site, we’ll take you through the must-have pages of your website. Then, we’ll look at how to plan your blog in a way that will benefit both your users and your visibility in Google. This will ensure your website helps you achieve your ultimate business goals.

3 Things to Consider When Creating a Page

When it comes to SEO, every page is a landing page. When someone performs a search, Google shows them whatever page is most relevant to their query. This means visitors won’t always land on your homepage first. They could visit any page without knowing a thing about your business.

That’s why every single page on your website needs to address a user’s search intent and encourage actions which drive your business goals.

To build a winning website, create each page with these three things in mind:

SEO: To drive organic traffic* to your website

User-friendly design: To engage visitors and address their needs

Conversion: To provide direction and encourage visitors to complete a desired action

Let’s say you run a flower shop and your website aims to drive sales. When someone searches ‘How to keep flowers fresh’ and lands on your blog, your content has to provide this information. But it can also mention your business and encourage click-throughs to your product pages in the hopes that visitors will convert.

Definition: Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is made up of visitors who arrive on your website through unpaid search engine results. In every set of results, search engines display the web pages which it thinks best matches a search query. These are ‘organic’ results and they aren’t paid for.

Creating Core Content

When people land on a website, they have certain expectations of what they’ll find. While you may want to get creative with your website, it’s essential to include certain standard pages.

Visitors expect to see these pages on a website, so making these pages will create a user-friendly experience for them. Here are some of the must-have pages your website should have.

Homepage

The homepage is usually the most popular part of a website in terms of traffic. It is the first page many visitors see, so you want to give them a simple overview of your business.

Your homepage should:

Introduce your business and what it does

Tell visitors why they should choose you

Link to other important pages on your website

If you sell a single service or product, you can discuss this on the homepage and use relevant keywords in the content. But if you sell multiple items, you should just focus on your brand name and communicating your value proposition. For example, if you ran a florist called ‘Mary’s Flowers’, you’d want to feature this keyword on your homepage several times.

Ensuring your homepage shows up in search results for your company name builds trust with your audience. People who are searching for you by name are already familiar with your brand and are more likely to convert, so it’s important that they can find you.

Providing smooth navigation through your website is another purpose of your homepage. Visitors who land here will be looking for more information, so make it easy for them to locate other important web pages.

Creating an intuitive and logical site structure helps users, but it is also an essential part of your site’s SEO health. Linking to pages from your homepage tells search engines that this content is also valuable. So you need to carefully decide which pages are important enough to be linked here. Whatever can’t be linked directly should be accessible with just a few clicks.

Once you’ve got this figured out, optimize your homepage like any other page. Create great content, thought-out headlines and structured metadata.

About Page

Visitors who view a company’s ‘about page’ are more likely to convert. So, even though it doesn’t focus on sales, this is another important page.

Here, visitors expect to find out more about your company’s roots and why they should trust you. For this reason, you should include information around:

Who your company is

Your organization’s history

Your mission or values

Your achievements and accreditation

An introduction to your founder or team – if appropriate

About pages are all about describing a business, so they shouldn’t be optimized for a specific keyword. However, they do provide a great opportunity to use synonyms which describe your business offering in new ways. For example, throughout its website, Mary’s Flowers most frequently uses the term ‘florist’ to describe its service. But on the about page, phrases like ‘flower shop’ and ‘flower delivery’ are also used.

The about page is also great for including keywords related to your industry along with words like ‘business’, ‘agency’, ‘company’ or ‘experts’. So Mary’s Flowers might use phrases like ‘wedding florists’ or ‘wedding flower specialists’ here.

Contact Page

Anyone who lands or clicks into your contact page wants your contact information, so that’s what you need to provide. Include:

Phone numbers

Locations

Emails – some businesses opt for contact forms to avoid spam

Business hours

This page should drive lots of leads and engagement for your business. It is also particularly useful for small businesses, which want to optimize their website for local SEO and ensure their web pages show up when people search keywords featuring their location.

This page should feature integrated maps, as well as structured data which lets Google know which bits of text are your address and phone number.

It’s also a good idea to add your contact details to the footer of all your website pages, as many users scroll down to look for this information.

Category Pages

Category pages are used to group individual item pages together based on a theme or subject. For example, business websites often group their products or services into a page which provides an overview of their offering. This gives order and structure to your website, which makes it easier for users to navigate your content and find what they’re looking for. Category pages are also used on blogs to divide out content.

Visitors who land on category pages relating to products or services are usually close to conversion. So instead of providing an introduction to your brand, you’ll want to showcase your products.

Products and services category pages should include:

A brief summary of your services or products in this category

What is unique about what you offer in this category

Links to specific product or service pages

Links to learn more

These category pages are designed to guide people to a specific item page. They are an important part of your sales funnel and, for large websites in particular, they play an essential role in organizing your website in a way that both users and search engines can understand.

These pages can be optimized for generic keywords related to the items in the category. It’s better to save the specific terms for individual item pages.

For example, Mary’s Flowers might use the keyword ‘wedding flowers’ on one of her high-level product pages. Whereas, specific product pages would include much more precise keywords, such as ‘white rose bridal bouquet’ or ‘white flower groom corsage’.

Depending on your range of products and services, you may need several of these overview pages. For example, Mary’s Flowers has one high-level page for wedding flowers and another for funeral arrangements. This makes it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.

While splitting your products and services into different groups can be helpful, you don’t want to create too many categories either. When creating a new overview page, you should ask yourself:

Do I have enough products or services to list under this category? You don’t want your listings to look bare.

Is this category distinctive from others? If Mary’s Flowers had one page for ‘Gifts’ and another for ‘Special Occasions’, users might not know which one to click when looking for a Valentine’s Day present.

Is this scalable? When you expand your listings in the future, will this section still make sense?

Item Pages

When people are on a page for a specific product or service, they’re close to conversion. Help them make a decision by accurately describing what you have to offer and letting them know why they should choose your business.

These pages should include:

Images and videos

Unique and engaging descriptions of your product or services

Pricing, where possible

Quantity and color selection options

‘Add to cart’ or ‘Get a quote’ CTAs

User reviews

For the benefit of both your users and your SEO, you should find out what kinds of information to include in your product descriptions. Look at competitor websites, check out Amazon or type your product name into Google and see what phrases auto-populate in the search bar below.

If you sell clothes, people may search for certain colors, sizes and materials etc. If you sell tools or electrical products, you might want to include a specific brand name or product number in the product title. It’s also worth noting that blog posts are considered item pages.

Terms & Conditions

This is an optional page which isn’t likely to get huge amounts of hits, but it can be very important on websites where building trust is a factor. This page doesn’t need to be optimized with SEO in mind. Instead, it should focus on instilling trust among your users.

Here, you need to determine the contractual terms between you and your customers. This page should include:

Guidelines on what visitors agree to by using your website .

An intellectual property disclosure stating that you own the website and that it is protected by copyright .

Information on which country’s laws govern the agreement .

A statement explaining that you’re not responsible for links to other websites.

Learn more about how to create terms and conditions for your website.

Privacy Policy Page

If you collect or handle people’s data, you’ll need a privacy policy on your website. This page is designed to inform visitors about how you use their personal data. From cookies to email addresses, it should highlight what information will be collected and how it will be used. Include information on:

The data collected

How it’s collected

If it will be shared with third parties – and if so, who they are

Similar to a T&Cs page, your privacy policy helps build trust with your users and doesn’t need to be optimized for specific keywords. However, whatever is written here should always be adhered to.

Here’s some more information on how to create a privacy policy.

Adding Supportive Content to Your Website

Adding supportive content, like FAQs and ‘how-to’ content, is a great way to get your website ranking for more keywords and broadening your online reach.

For example, a FAQ post can help your website show up in search results for commonly asked questions related to your industry or business. Once you draw in a visitor and helpfully answer their question, they’re more likely to engage with you and, perhaps, make a related purchase.

Supportive content provides an opportunity to share useful and knowledgeable information to help your users and customers. This builds brand awareness, trust and loyalty, which is good for your business. All these things can lead to more conversions down the line.

Types of supportive content, include:

FAQs

Blog posts

Image galleries

Testimonials

Landing pages

Case studies

Now that you have a clear idea of how to choose core content for your website, your next step is  choosing a page structure.