What Should Be on a Business Website?
There isn’t one perfect list of pages every business website needs. A manufacturer, law firm, retailer, nonprofit and construction company have very different customers—and very different jobs for their websites to do.
So instead of asking:
“Which pages should we have?”
Start with:
“What does someone need to know before they’re comfortable taking the next step?”
Build the website around those answers.
Explain What You Do.
It sounds obvious. Yet many websites make visitors work surprisingly hard to understand what the business offers. Your products or services deserve enough space to explain:
A homepage can introduce what you do. Dedicated pages give you the space to explain it properly.
Explain Why You.
Most customers have choices. Your website should help them understand why your business deserves consideration. That doesn’t mean creating a section titled: “Why We’re Better.”
The answer can emerge through the entire experience:
Together, these elements give people a reason to choose you.
Show Evidence.
Strong websites don’t depend entirely on claims. They demonstrate. Depending on the business, that might include:
If you do great work, let people see it.
Answer Important Questions.
Potential customers usually have questions before they’re ready to contact you. Some are obvious. Others only become apparent after years of talking to customers.
Those questions can become some of the most valuable information on the website. They help customers. They demonstrate expertise. And they create useful information that search engines and emerging AI search systems can understand.
Show the People Behind the Business.
People often want to know who they’re dealing with. This matters particularly when expertise, trust or relationships influence the buying decision.
Introduce the people who make the organization what it is. Not every team member needs a lengthy biography. But a business should feel like it has real people behind it. Real photography usually helps too.
Give People Somewhere to Go Next.
A website shouldn’t leave visitors wondering what to do next. Depending on the business, that next step can be:
Different pages may lead to different actions. The important thing is that the next step seems natural.
What Doesn’t Need to Be There?
Anything that exists only because: “Every website has one.”
More pages don’t automatically make a better website. More copy doesn’t automatically make it more persuasive. More features don’t automatically create a better experience. Every element should earn its place.
The objective isn’t to fill a website.
It’s to remove the distance between interest and confidence.
Think About the Customer’s Questions.
A useful way to think about website content is:
01
What do you do?
02
Is it for me?
03
Why should I believe you?
04
Why should I choose you?
05
What else do I need to know?
06
What do I do next?
The pages and content should support those questions—not dictate them. That’s where website strategy becomes more valuable than a page checklist.
What Comes Next?
Even a website with all the right information can struggle to produce opportunities. We’ve already explored that question in our Digital Marketing Insights:
Why Is My Website Getting Traffic but Not Generating Leads?
Rather than repeat the answer here, we’ll connect you directly to that Insight.
Build Around What Your Customers Need to Know.
PLAY combines strategy, content, creative and user experience to build websites around the decisions real customers make.
Question chain
01
What Makes a Good Business Website?
02
How Do I Know If My Website Needs to Be Redesigned?
03
What Should My Homepage Actually Do?
04
What Should Be on a Business Website?
05
Why Isn’t My Website Generating Leads?
06
How Important Is Website Design to My Brand?
07
How Do SEO and AI Search Affect Website Design?
08
What Should a Website Do for My Business?