One question we regularly answer is: “What pages should we have on our website?” This is totally up to the website owner, of course, but we do have a suggested set of pages that most sites should have.
Home Page: all websites need a central page to act as the main entry point. This is where you’ll find the beginning of site navigation (menus, links, etc.), and enough information, as text or graphics, to show a visitor that they are indeed on the correct site. There are several types of home pages: some pages have only an opening screen with minimal graphics and a navigation menu, where others may display the latest news of the company or individual who owns the site, current specials and sales, or other items that are updated regularly. The home page should be laid out simply: keep it easy to navigate, make sure it is uncluttered, and project your best first impression of your company (or personal) image.
About Us (or Biography): tell the world a little background about your company, or yourself. If you are a business, tell us how you started, what you currently sell or which services you offer, or anything else that a visitor would like to see. If you are an individual, give us your biography.
Meet The Staff: if your business has a staff that deals with the public regularly, consider putting up a page of small thumbnail images of your staff, along with their name, position, and a brief description of them.
Contact Page: the most important thing on your site! If you are trying to generate business, make it easy for customers and clients to contact you. At a bare minimum, give the world your phone number, and an e-mail address to contact you by. If you have a walk-in location, put a map to your business on this page.
Privacy Policy: while it isn’t required, it is considered good form to tell visitors exactly what you are doing with their information.
Frequently Asked Questions (aka “FAQ”): are you seemingly answering the same questions repeatedly during the course of a day? Make a note of them, and put them on a FAQ page on your site.
Links Page: to enhance your search engine positioning, it is recommended that you give reciprocal links to those who ask for them. Not only is it a courtesy, they will link to your site on their page as well, and the search engines will treat it as a “quality” incoming link for you.
Sitemap: this is simply a page containing a listing of all of the content of your site. It is helpful if a visitor gets lost, or can’t find a page on your site. In addition, the search engines now have a standardized sitemap format that they can use to index your site. It will not improve your ranking, but it will make sure that all of your pages are appropriately linked to.