One of the most common questions small business owners ask when planning a new website is: "What pages do I actually need?" It is tempting to add everything at once — a blog, a gallery, a team page, a news section — and end up with a sprawling site that confuses visitors and dilutes your message.
The truth is that most small businesses need far fewer pages than they think. What matters is not quantity but clarity. A tight, well-structured website with five or six strong pages will outperform a cluttered twenty-page site every time. Here is what you actually need, and what to put on each page.
Home Page
Your home page is doing the most important job on your website: telling a visitor, in seconds, who you are, what you do, and whether you are relevant to them. Most people spend less than ten seconds on a page before deciding whether to stay or leave. Your home page has to earn their attention quickly.
Keep the message clear and direct. Lead with what you do and who you do it for — not a vague tagline or a "welcome to our website" greeting. Include a strong call to action (book a call, request a quote, get in touch) above the fold, before the visitor has to scroll.
Your home page should also build trust. A handful of genuine customer reviews, a few client logos, or a brief statement of how many years you have been trading all help a first-time visitor feel confident about contacting you.
Services Page
If you offer more than one service, a dedicated services page lets visitors quickly find what is relevant to them. If you offer a single clear service, you might not need a separate services page — you can cover it on your home page — but for most businesses, separating out your offer helps with both clarity and SEO.
For each service, explain what it is, who it is for, and what the outcome looks like. Avoid jargon and feature lists. Your customers do not care about the technical details of how you deliver a service; they care about the result they will get.
If your services are distinct enough, consider giving each one its own page. A plumber offering boiler installations, bathroom fitting, and emergency callouts will rank better on Google if each service has a dedicated page with its own focused content, rather than lumping them all together.
About Page
People buy from people, especially for local and service-based businesses. Your About page is where visitors decide whether they trust you.
Do not waste it on corporate boilerplate. Skip the vague mission statements and the generic lines about "delivering exceptional service." Instead, tell your story honestly. Why did you start this business? What experience do you bring? What do you care about?
Include a photo of yourself — ideally not a stiff headshot, but something that feels genuine. If you have a small team, show them too. Faces build trust faster than any amount of text.
Your About page is also a good place to mention any relevant qualifications, accreditations, trade associations, or years of experience. Do not lead with credentials, but do include them. They matter to customers who are comparing their options.
Contact Page
This might seem obvious, but a surprising number of small business websites make it too hard to get in touch. A contact page should be easy to find (always in your main navigation), simple to use, and clear about what happens next.
At a minimum, include:
- A contact form with as few fields as possible (name, email, and a message is usually enough)
- Your phone number, if you take calls
- Your email address
- Your location or service area, so visitors know you cover their area before they reach out
If you have a physical address or premises that customers visit, include a map. If you have specific availability or response time expectations ("we reply within one working day"), say so — it removes uncertainty and makes people more likely to send that message.
Testimonials or Reviews Page (Optional but Valuable)
Social proof is one of the most powerful tools on a small business website. If you have a collection of genuine customer testimonials, a dedicated reviews page lets you showcase them without cluttering your home page.
More importantly, testimonials can be woven throughout your site wherever they are most relevant. A testimonial from a happy customer on your services page — right next to the service they used — is far more persuasive than the same testimonial buried at the bottom of a separate page.
If you have Google reviews, embed a feed or link directly to your Google Business Profile. Third-party reviews are more credible than testimonials you have typed up yourself.
A Blog (If You Will Actually Use It)
A blog can be genuinely valuable for small business websites — it gives Google fresh content to index, helps you rank for additional keywords, and positions you as a knowledgeable expert in your field. The posts on this site are a good example of the kind of content that works: practical, specific, and aimed at answering real questions your customers are searching for.
But a blog you do not update is worse than no blog at all. An "our latest news" section with three posts from 2022 tells visitors the business is either stagnant or too busy to maintain its website. If you are not going to commit to writing regularly, leave the blog out.
If you do start a blog, aim for quality over quantity. One genuinely useful post a month is worth far more than a flurry of thin, vague content.
A Gallery or Portfolio (Depends on Your Business)
For trades, designers, photographers, landscapers, florists, or anyone whose work is visual — a portfolio or gallery page is essential. Seeing finished work gives potential customers the confidence that you can deliver what they need.
Keep it curated. Twenty strong images of genuinely impressive work will serve you far better than a hundred mixed-quality photos uploaded in bulk. Include a brief caption for each piece: the location, the scope of work, and ideally a word or two about the result.
For most service businesses where the work is less visual — accountants, consultants, HR advisors — a gallery does not add much. Strong testimonials and case studies do more to build trust in those sectors.
Pages You Probably Do Not Need
It is worth briefly addressing some pages that often get added unnecessarily:
A "team" page for a one-person business. A single headshot and bio fits comfortably on your About page. A "meet the team" page with only one person on it can actually undermine confidence — it draws attention to the fact that you are a sole trader, which some clients treat as a negative.
A news or updates section you will not maintain. As above, empty or outdated news is worse than nothing.
A FAQ page that answers questions nobody is asking. FAQs can be useful, but only if the questions on it reflect what your customers genuinely wonder about. Generic FAQ pages that pad out a website with obvious answers are a waste of space.
A "coming soon" page for a service you have not launched yet. Build it when you have something to say.
Getting the Structure Right From the Start
The pages on your website are not just navigation items — they are the skeleton of your business's online presence. Getting them right from the start means your site is easier to build, easier to update, and easier for Google to understand.
Before you plan any new website, spend time mapping out exactly what your visitors need to know and what action you want them to take. Usually, it comes down to: what you do, why you are good at it, and how to get in touch. Everything else should support those three things.
If you want advice on structuring your website, or you are starting from scratch and want it built properly, get in touch — we are happy to talk through your options with no obligation.