What Pages Does a Small Business Website Need?

Most small business websites need five pages: home, services (or products), about, contact and a privacy policy. Many also benefit from a reviews or examples page and a short FAQ. Everything else is optional, and a site with five finished pages beats one with twelve half-written ones.

Here's what goes on each, using a fictional plumbing business and a fictional café as examples.

Home

The home page has one job: tell a visitor within a few seconds whether they're in the right place. That means answering three questions near the top of the page, before anyone scrolls.

1. What do you do? "Emergency and scheduled plumbing repairs."
2. Where? "Serving Eastside and the north suburbs."
3. What should I do next? A visible button or phone number: "Call (555) 014-2290" or "Book a repair."

Below that, add short summaries of your main services with links to the detail pages, a couple of reviews, and your hours. Use a real photo of your team, van, shop or food. Stock photos of smiling people in headsets make a small business look like a call center.

Services or products

Give each main service its own section, or its own page if you have more than four or five. For each one, cover:

• what it is, in plain words
• who it's for and when someone would need it
• a price, starting price or typical range, if you can share one
• how long it takes and what happens next

A café would list its menu here instead, with prices and dietary notes. Don't upload the menu only as a PDF or a photo. Plain text is easier to read on phones, works with screen readers and can be found by search engines.

About

People buy from people. The about page explains who runs the business, how long you've been doing it, and anything that makes you different, like licenses, training or the fact that the same two people have run the café since 2011.

Include names and real photos. If you have certifications or insurance that customers care about, mention them here and on the services page.

Contact

Make this page boring and complete:

• phone number, written as text so phones can tap to call
• email address or a simple contact form
• street address, if customers visit you, with directions, parking and a map or landmark
• opening hours, including holiday changes
• the area you serve, if you go to customers

Put your phone number and hours in the footer of every page too. Some visitors never click past the home page.

If you use a contact form, keep it short. Name, email or phone, and a message box is enough. Every extra required field loses some people. Test it after launch and again whenever you change hosting.

Privacy policy

If your site collects anything about visitors, such as contact form messages, newsletter sign-ups, bookings or analytics, you should explain what you collect and what you do with it. Depending on where you and your customers are, privacy laws may require it.

Keep it honest and readable. Say what the form collects, why, how long you keep it and how someone can ask you to delete it. Don't paste a generic policy that mentions tracking you don't actually do. If you sell online, you'll also need terms of sale and a returns policy.

Reviews or examples

Proof helps people choose you. A handful of genuine customer quotes, with first names and the service they used, is enough. Ask permission before you publish a review. A tradesperson can show before-and-after photos, and a designer or photographer can show project examples.

Never write fake reviews or copy them from another site. Besides being dishonest, it can break consumer protection rules in many places.

Extras worth considering

Add these only if they fit your business:

• An FAQ that answers the questions you get on the phone every week: parking, payment methods, cancellation policy, how far you travel.
• Online booking, if appointments are your business. It saves time on both sides.
• A news or updates page for a seasonal business, as long as you'll keep it current.
• A short careers page if you hire regularly.

Pages to skip

You don't need a "Mission and Values" page, a page per staff member, or a blog you won't update. A cluttered menu makes the important pages harder to find.

Put it together

A clear menu might be: Home, Services, About, Reviews, Contact. Keep the privacy policy and any legal pages linked in the footer.

When you're done, ask someone who doesn't know your business to find your prices and your phone number. Time them. If it takes more than ten seconds, move those details higher. The website planner on our home page will draft this page list for you, along with a launch checklist, if you choose "Small business."

Questions