The single most common part of a website project that causes the biggest delays, time after time, is content. Trying to decide what to put on your website seems to send most people straight into analysis-paralysis. And I totally get it. But – a website without content is just some pretty pictures, and that’s not helpful for converting your target audience to customers.
Websites can be many things – brochure sites, membership sites, blogs, courses, podcasts, etc. And if you’ve got big plans for your site, it can be hard to know what to start with and what can come later. If you’re just starting out, you don’t have to try to do it all at once. There are, however, a few key pages that you should have, even from the very beginning.
About Page
Your about page can be one of the most visited pages on your website. This page will be used to tell your audience a little bit about yourself. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust, and learning a little about who you are as a person can help you build trust with your customers.
Don’t forget to include your name and a picture of you! Having your name and photo on your about page will let people know who you are and that you’re an actual person, not just a faceless, nameless website. I know that I am less likely to trust a website that doesn’t include at least the name of the person behind it. This is especially important if your website URL is your business name or blog name. It’s important to make your audience to feel confident in you, and that includes confidence that you are a real person.
In addition to telling people about your business, you can also use the About page to tell more about how your business came to be, and how you can help your audience.
Contact Page
Even if you have your phone number in the header or footer of your site, or if your contact information is listed elsewhere, you should also have a contact page on your site. It can be simple, with just your contact information listed, and maybe links to social media sites that you use regularly. I do also recommend having a contact form. There are many good free and premium WordPress form plugins that will make creating a contact form easy.
Be sure to test your contact form on a regular basis to make sure you’re getting the notifications when someone fills out the form.
Services or Work With Me Page
Let people know how you can help them, and that you’re open for business. That is what your work with me page does. If you have products or services, you can include the links where people can purchase them.
Or, you can just include some text on how you help people and then include a link to where people can book a discovery call with you.
Blog
A blog is perfect for sharing your knowledge and expertise with your target audience. Regularly posted content is also great for search engine ranking and helping your site appear more often in organic search results.
Privacy Policy & Terms Page
This one may not seem like a big deal for smaller websites, sites that are more like a “brochure” for the company they represent. But, more and more states in the US and other countries around the world are enacting privacy laws aimed at protecting the personally identifiable information (PII) of consumers. As online marketers, I know we rely on some of this kind of information for targeting our customers. Things like Facebook Pixels and other tracking scripts (even things like Google Analytics) collect info that could be subject to these laws. And often the laws protect the consumer based on their location, regardless of where your business is operated from or registered. So you need things like a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use agreement and Cookie Policies – things that all amount to contracts, so you really need to know what you are saying you will do. This can be daunting, and expensive, if you were to hire an attorney to draft these for you. Fortunately, there’s another option – Termageddon.
Termageddon is a privacy policy vendor who offers comprehensive policies covering all of the relevant laws. It was founded by a website developer and a lawyer, and they monitor all relevant laws to make sure their policies cover all the bases. You can sign up on their website for as little as $10/month or $99/year and each package includes a Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Disclaimer and End User License Agreement. If you sign up with my link and use the code “OFFICE“, you’ll get 10% off your first year.
Image Credit: background photo in thumbnail by Christina Morillo from Pexels