Any successful business needs a strong online presence. As beneficial as word of mouth can be when you just started out, the majority of enquiries come via your website, with a small but not insignificant percentage driven by social media.  

If you’ve bolstered your site with SEO and quality content, your conversion rate should be solid. But in our decades of web design experience we’ve seen many websites that are either missing something vital or not extracting the full potential from each page.  

Today we’re going to talk about the major pages of websites, outlining what’s best to include, and explain why our web design team are will help you take your website to the next level.  

How to Create an Impactful Home Page

If you understand your brand, and how it represents you, this should be at its clearest on the home page of your website. This will be the first impression people have of your business 99% of the time; it needs to stand out. An effective home page balances information with visuals. You want your message to be clear what you do from the first line, so people know they’re in the right place. If they’re greeted with paragraphs of text, they might be put off regardless of how informative it is. 

If you pair your content with clear imagery such as your logo, what you do, and pictures of your team, you’ll be selling yourself without saying a word. You could also go one step further and create an introductory video for your home page. These are much more engaging and present all the necessary information in a digestible way.  

We provide both live action and animated promotional videos that are perfect for your website and social media. When you’re re-establishing your brand or trying to push in a new direction, professional videography is the solution to making these changes clear. Of course, you want to make sure the rest of your website is seen by potential clients and/or customers too. That’s why it’s vital to include links to your other pages on your home page. Starting with… 

What to Include on your Services Page

The best approach for your service page depends on what you do. If your business offers one service, such as photography, you might not need a separate ‘service’ page and can instead incorporate a ‘what we do’ page or just add it to the home page to keep things simple. But if you have a range of products or services, each deserves their own page. 

A key aspect of marketing is knowing what your customers are looking for. This is the place to answer all questions, explaining what you will do for them and why you’re the best choice. As an established company you know how to do this, but it may be in the wrong place. Dedicated service pages improve clarity and give you all the space necessary to explain what you do.  

As a company with a range of marketing services, we understand how valuable this is. Many of our clients aren’t looking for everything we provide and prefer to pick and choose the services they need. Having them all under one roof makes communication easier, and our flexibility is why we’ve been trusted by some of the biggest brands to improve their web design. 

When to Include an About Us Page

The purpose of an about page is to introduce yourself and your team, as well as providing some more insight into your business, such as how you started and when.  

This is a page many businesses neglect to include, which in our experience is a mistake. Your brand is a representation of you and your team. If you don’t have any information about who you are and what your story is, you’ll be seen as a faceless business that won’t appeal to customers who want to know the people behind the company name.  

If you do have an about us page, the way you present the information is just as important. In the past a few pictures with the names and roles of your team was plenty, but now as web design has improved people expect to see more from an established business.  

A bespoke business video can provide your origin story, an introduction to your team, and even a quick tour of your offices all in one place. Creating these videos isn’t just for boosting sales and enquiries either; it can be a fun bonding experience for staff and is a way to push forward with any branding adjustments you’re making.  

Is a Contact Page Necessary? 

This is a question we’re asked a lot, and the answer is always yes. Some business owners have removed their contact pages, instead using widgets on each page that give visitors the ability to email send an email or even open up a chatroom with a real employee or AI model that can answer their questions.  

These work brilliantly, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch, after all. However, having a contact page is still as important now as it was ten years ago when chat pop-ups were barely a theory. Instead of finding contact details on each page, having it as a dedicated part of your website’s menu will ensure that anyone can find it at any time.  

Websites that Suit your Brand

The pages we’ve discussed so far are what you’d usually expect to find on a business-focused website. But all businesses are different, and there will be pages that suit you but not others. This can include: 

  • Galleries 
  • Portfolios 
  • Checkout/Basket 
  • Blog/News 
  • Sustainability Information 
  • Areas we Cover 
  • And more!  

When designing your pages, you want to make sure they’re accessible. It’s estimated that nearly a quarter of the world’s online population benefit from accessibility features on the internet. Many of these will be potential customers, and if they can’t browse your site, they’ll be turned away disappointed. If you don’t know how to integrate accessibility features, we’re ready and waiting to help you.  

We create unique websites for our clients from scratch or redesign their existing site so that it reflects their brand and has everything their customers need. If you feel like something is missing from your website or just want to make every page as efficient as possible, Williams&Crosby are the team to call.