What pages does a small business website actually need?

Most small business websites have either too few pages or the wrong ones. Here is what a service business site actually needs, page by page, and what belongs on each.

The five pages that do the work

1. Homepage

Its only job is to answer four questions in the first screenful, before anyone scrolls:

1. What do you do?
2. Who do you do it for?
3. Where do you do it?
4. What should I do next?

“Welcome to our website” answers none of them. “Wheelie bin cleaning across Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, no contract, from £4 a month” answers all four in a sentence.

Below that: a short summary of your services with links to each service page, two or three pieces of proof (reviews, real photos, recognisable clients), and the same clear next step again at the bottom. Don’t make the homepage explain everything. Make it point clearly at the pages that do.

2. A page for each service

This is the one most sites get wrong, and it’s the difference between showing up in search results and not.

One page listing eight services ranks badly for all eight, because search engines match pages to searches and that page isn’t really about any one of them. Give each meaningful service its own page.

Each one wants: what it is in plain English, what’s included, who it suits, roughly what it costs, a photo of you actually doing it, the questions people ask about it, and a way to get in touch without scrolling back to the top.

If you offer three things, that’s three pages. Not three bullet points.

3. Pricing

Some sort of pricing page, even if it’s ranges, “from” prices or worked examples. The most common reason someone leaves without contacting you is that they can’t tell if you’re in their budget and would rather not ask.

I’ve made the full argument for this separately, because it’s the thing I disagree with clients about most often.

4. About

Not your life story. People land here to work out whether to trust you with their money.

What they want: who you actually are, a real photo of a real person, how long you’ve been doing this, what you’re qualified or insured for, and what it’s like to work with you. A photograph of you beats a stock image of a handshake every single time.

5. Contact

Every way of reaching you, all in one place, all working. Phone number that’s tappable on a phone. Email address. A short form. Which areas you cover. When you’re available and how quickly you reply.

Then test it. Send yourself an enquiry through your own form today. Broken forms and notification emails landing in unwatched mailboxes are far more common than anyone expects, and each one has been quietly binning work for months.

Worth adding, once the five are right

Case studies or a portfolio. For anything visual or anything expensive, seeing previous work is what closes the gap between interested and enquiring. One page per job, with a before, an after and what the problem was.

Reviews. Either a dedicated page or reviews woven through the other pages. Real names, real detail. “Great service, highly recommend” persuades nobody. “They came out the same day and sorted a leak two other firms had missed” does.

A blog, if you’ll actually keep it up. Answering the questions your customers ask gives search engines something to match and gives visitors a reason to trust you. Four genuinely useful posts beat forty thin ones. An abandoned blog with one post from two years ago is worse than no blog.

Area pages, if you can write them honestly. Useful when you cover several towns, but only if you can say something true and specific about each one. Forty copies of the same paragraph with the town name swapped is the fastest way to look like spam. If you can’t write something distinct, put your coverage on one honest page instead.

FAQs. The questions you answer on the phone every week. If they come up on the phone, they’re being typed into Google first.

The legal ones

Not optional, and quick to sort: a privacy policy if you collect anything through a form, a cookie notice if you use anything beyond essential cookies, terms if you’re selling online, and your company details if you’re a limited company.

Put them in the footer where they belong. Nobody minds them being boring.

Pages you can skip

“Welcome” or splash pages. An extra click between a visitor and what they came for.

A news page you’ll update twice. Nothing says “possibly out of business” like a latest update from 2023.

Long “Our Values” pages. Show it through how you write everything else.

Separate pages for every tiny variation. Splitting “gutter cleaning” and “gutter clearing” onto two pages doesn’t help you rank. It splits one decent page into two weak ones.

Start with five, not fifteen

Five good pages beat fifteen thin ones, every time. Get the homepage, your service pages, pricing, about and contact genuinely right, then add as you go.

A common shape for a service business ends up being a homepage, three or four service pages, pricing, about, contact and the legal bits. Eight to ten pages, all of which earn their place.

If you’d rather someone worked out the structure with you, that’s the first thing I do on any project. Tell me what you do and I’ll come back with a page plan and a fixed price.