If you’ve been in business for more than five minutes, someone has probably asked you about your website.
These days, websites are your storefront, your office, your infrastructure. And having a good one can mean the difference between significant business growth or leaving a lot of money on the table.
As a web designer, I see a lot of hand wringing about websites. Usually, people want to know what the magic formula is to making someone become a customer. The thing I always say is that you want your website to be easy for prospective clients to understand who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.
If you don’t give your visitor those three things quickly and clearly, they’ll leave your website and go find another service provider who can give them that information.
The good news is, it’s not difficult to give them the info they’re looking for, and here are the three pages you need to have on your website to provide it.
An informative homepage (with a goal)
Home pages are often treated as brochure-style landing pages that show off everything a business has to offer and then sends people deeper into the website.
This isn’t a great idea, strategy-wise.
Great homepages tell people what you do (quickly and without question), show that you understand the problem they’re having, and demonstrate how you can help them.
You also want your homepage to have a call to action that’s inescapable.
If you want people to book a call, then the call to action is “Book a Call”. If you want people to request a consultation, then the call to action is “Request a Consultation”. If you want people to join your membership, then the call to action is “Become a Member”.
The call to action is the most important part of your homepage because it tells people what you want them to do. (If you don’t tell them what to do, or give them too many choices, they might do something that doesn’t result in revenue for you or they might do nothing, which would be the worst.)
A Services page
Your services page is, arguably, the most important page on your website, because this is where you take your prospective client all the way through the sales cycle.
Service pages should flow like sales pages. They should take your visitor through the stages of interest, where you have their attention and they think you might be able to help them; then through desire, where you show them how their life would be improved by hiring you/using your services; and finally, to action, where you inspire them to get in touch or buy.
Write your sales page copy to relate to your prospective client’s pain points; talk about how you developed a solution to these problems and why you’re passionate about helping this market. Remember to always write from their perspective and keep the focus on your customer and their outcomes, not on you and what you can do for them.
Service pages should include lots of pictures of people using and enjoying your service (or its outcome). They should also include lots of social proof in the form of reviews and testimonials from people who have successfully had their lives improved by working with/buying from you.
A Book a Call page
A Book a Call page is the second most important page on your website, after the services page(s). This is the page your prospects land on after they’ve decided to take action and get in touch with you.
Your process might call this a discovery call or a consultation or a chat. Whatever you call it, this page should include a straightforward way to book and include details about what will happen during the call.
Once someone has decided that they want the kind of transformation your services are promising, you want to capitalize on that excitement by having them take the action right then.
If your Book a Call page includes only an email or a generic form to fill out, your visitor may not take the extra steps required to get in touch and you might lose the opportunity to connect.
But where’s the About page?
You might be wondering where the About page is and why I haven’t included it on this list. There was a time when your About page was an essential part of converting customers. That time has passed.
About pages were a good place to put your life story, philosophy, mission, and purpose for your business. But in today’s internet world, the attention a person is willing to spend on your About page is much better used getting them to your Services page and converting them.
Instead, your story, philosophy, mission, and purpose should be woven into your content and framed around your customer and their problem. Where once the service and the story were separate, now they are one.
And it’s much more effective, honestly.
The Big Three are all you need
If your website includes only these three pages, you’re in good shape to convert the people who come looking for your services.
Wanna know what else you can do to attract and convert more visitors with your website? Check out my e-book Bland to Brilliant: 15 Things Your Website Needs to Attract More Clients.
