In this post I talk about the main business pages every service business website needs. The pages include home, services, about us, contact us, portfolio, and case studies. Many service businesses websites include more pages than this. For instance, if you have a blog section on your website, you could have categories of posts that are considered cornerstone content. You could also have a star piece of content that is your flagship content. I’ve written about those content types elsewhere. I link from this post to more comprehensive information about specific topics on other pages. Click those links to find out more.
Your website should be like your competitors, but better
The layout and navigation of your main business pages should be familiar, and the design and color scheme should look professional. The most important point is that prospective customers should find what they came looking for in a way that feels easy and intuitive. If your site is too different from what they’re used to, it might confuse or frustrate your customers. A practical rule of thumb is to ensure that your website is like your competitors, but better.
Content, navigation, and design
To make your website like, but better than, your competitors, you should follow best practices for the content you need to include and how the layout and navigation works.
Homepage
The homepage gives an overview of your business. In the body of your homepage, you link to your most important pages. Such as services, about us, contact us, blog, portfolio, and case studies. This helps anyone who scans your homepage see what services your business offers. They can click links to go directly to any section of your website that interests them. This setup makes your homepage an overview and navigation page. This is good for user experience because your site visitors can easily find what they want.
Homepage SEO
Many businesses SEO optimise their homepage for their business name. Ideally, when a customer types your business name in to Google, you want to be the top link listed. This is one reason why a brandable or unique business name is useful. If your business name was Business Services London, you’d be competing with many other businesses when your customers tried to find your website. If, on the other hand, your business was called Bold Business Services, you’d have a better chance of ranking number one for your business name.
Services page or pages
If you offer one or two services, you could put both services on one page, but if you offer several services, you’ll probably want to have a different page for each service. You could then SEO optimise each page for that specific service and, optionally, for a service area. For instance, you could optimise one of your service pages for 24 Hour Plumbing Services in York, England. If you offer an online service such as copywriting, SEO, or social media management, you might still want to target local customers until your business is established and you have a good portfolio. When your business is established, you could start targeting national or global searches.
About us page
Your about us page is not about you; it’s about why you are the best placed business to solve your customer’s problem. You will put a lot of information about you and your staff on this page, but it’s not an ego trip. On your about us page, include all the information your customer needs to make an informed decision about employing you or not.
Contact us
Once a prospective customer has read through your main business pages and gets to your contact us page, you don’t want any unnecessary content, stumbling blocks or bottlenecks in the way. Just make it easy for them to make initial contact and explain what happens next. Here’s an example: Use the form below to contact us. June, our customer services manager will reply within 24 hours on weekdays or after the weekend if you contact us on Friday. Please provide a brief overview of the work you need doing and the area you live in. This helps June be prepared when she calls you back. A simple contact form could go below this. The more open and approachable you are, and the less information you ask for, the more people are likely to contact you.
Portfolio
Make sure your portfolio includes examples of your key or staple work, then prospective customers can see that you have experience in this kind of work. You can also include examples of work that you’re most proud of, such as your biggest contracts or work that took you into a new niche higher up the pecking order. But make sure your portfolio includes work that your ideal customer can identify with and can see that you have experience doing the work they need doing. Your portfolio and case studies are in addition to your main business pages but the time and effort you put into making these pages will pay dividends long term.
Case studies
Case studies enable you to go into more depth than in your portfolio pages. This has two benefits, SEO, and authority. When a prospective customer reads one of your portfolio articles, you want them to think I’ve got this problem, and here’s a business that can solve it.
EAT (E-E-A-T)
Google has many guidelines, the EEAT guideline focusses on:
- Experience.
- Expertise.
- Authoritativeness.
- Trustworthiness.
Your portfolio and cases studies are a great place to prove to Google and to your customers that you have experience, expertise, authority, and that you’re trustworthy. Providing that proof can also help convince prospective customers that you deserve a place on their shortlist of potential service providers.
WP SideGig has some useful templates to help you write your main business pages. Gill Andrews book Making Your Website Work is a good investment if you’re new to web design or copywriting.