The five pages every small-business website needs

More pages do not mean more customers. We've watched businesses agonize over a sprawling sitemap when what they needed was five pages, each doing one job exceptionally well. Nail these before you add anything else.

1. Home — the eight-second pitch

A visitor should know what you do, where you do it, and what to do next before they scroll. One clear headline beats a slideshow every time. Resist the urge to cram everything above the fold; the job of the homepage is to orient and direct, not to say everything at once.

2. Services — what you sell, with prices

List at least starting prices. It feels vulnerable, but it filters out mismatched leads and builds instant trust with everyone who's in your range. 'Call for pricing' mostly generates neither calls nor pricing — it generates closed tabs. Give people enough to self-qualify.

3. About — the trust page

People buy from people, especially locally. A real photo of you (not a stock handshake), your actual story, and a plain answer to 'why should I trust you with this' do more work than any amount of corporate boilerplate. The About page is consistently among the most-visited on small-business sites — don't waste it on a mission statement nobody reads.

4. Proof — reviews, work, or results

Whatever fits your trade: a portfolio, before-and-afters, testimonials, a wall of Google reviews. The rule is specificity. One concrete result — 'online orders up 38% in three months' — outweighs ten vague compliments about how nice you are to work with.

Specific proof beats generic praise. One real number does more than a dozen five-star adjectives.

5. Contact — make it effortless

A short form, your phone number, your hours, and a map if you have a storefront. Every extra form field measurably reduces submissions, so ask for the absolute minimum — usually name, contact, and a message. If someone wants to reach you, your job is to remove every obstacle between the impulse and the message.

What about a blog?

Notice what's not on the list. A blog is powerful if you'll actually write it. A 'News' page last updated in 2023 is worse than no blog at all — it quietly signals that the business might be dormant. Only commit to one if you've got a realistic plan to feed it.

Start with five, add later

You can always grow. Plenty of our clients launch with these five, prove the site works, and add a gallery or an FAQ once they know what visitors are actually asking for. Build the core that converts first; decorate later. If you want help figuring out which five pages your business needs, the intake wizard is a good place to start.