A great website instantly hooks your audience. Your website is most likely the easiest way to spread your brand to the largest possible audience. You want to make a great first impression and therefore, it’s crucial that your site is as organized as it can be.
The quality of your content will ultimately drive your site but let’s assume you’ve got that covered. You have high-quality, unique, and interesting content to share with your audience but that isn’t the complete recipe for success.
Organizing the pages of your site is just as important. A well-structured site translates to more clicks, impressions, and an overall convenient experience for your visitors.
Before you jump into monetizing your site or signing up with affiliate programs to earn revenue you need to solidify the basics. Having these most important pages on your website is the right step.
So, what are the most important pages to include on your website?
The first set of pages to include on your site is ones that establish your credibility. You won’t see many established sites without these pages so it’s important you include these pages as well. Regardless of what your business is, these pages are critical.
12 Most Important Pages Every Website Should Have
Homepage
This is the very first and the most important page your audience sees so it goes without saying, this page needs to make an impact.
According to a study on average, about 55% of internet users spend no longer than 15 seconds on a website. This means, you effectively have a fraction of a minute to grab your audience before they are potentially gone forever. A great home page can be that hook.
Your home page should clearly convey what your business is. However, it’s equally important to be concise on your home page. No one wants to be greeted with paragraphs of tedious information on the first page they see. Use a design that will pique the interest of your audience. Use images, colors, and fonts to your advantage. At the same time, don’t overcomplicate it, keep it simple but stylish.
About Us
Your home page conveys your brand, if that works there’s a good chance your audience might want to learn a bit about you. The About Us page gives you an opportunity to get personal. Answer the questions that your interested visitors might ask. For example, what makes you or your products special? What drives you? What are your passions? What is your vision?
This page should include a well-written overview of your brand and what it stands for. It’s objectives, achievements, and history. In addition, biographies of you or your staff are also great to include. Your audience will be more interested in your site if they’re interested in you. It’s also unsurprisingly one of the most visited pages on websites.
Contact
Third and one of the most important pages on your website. The interested members of your audience might be eager enough to directly contact you. This could be the beginning of further business opportunities so it’s vital that your Contact page is clear.
Your Contact page should include your email address, phone number as well as your physical mailing address. Make sure all the details you have here are correct and updated, your visitors should be able to reach you as swiftly as possible.
In addition to a dedicated Contact page, it’s a great idea to include your contact details in the footer of every page. This just makes it easier for your audience to get in touch with you.
Privacy Policy
Your website needs a privacy policy page. Not only is it useful for your audience but monetizing your site is next to impossible without one. The Privacy Policy page details what you do with visitor information. It’s an explanation of how you collect and use data for example if you share it and with who.
A Privacy Policy page establishes the legitimacy of your website. Visitors know they can trust your site and are comfortable sharing information with you. It’s crucial that you always stick to your privacy policy to maintain that trust.
Terms and Conditions
The Terms and Conditions page is another important page that is usually included on most established sites. While the Privacy Policy detailed the way you used visitor data, this page lays out the rules your visitors must follow. This page maintains your rights as a content creator and legally protects your site. This may seem like a boring and uninteresting page to include but it’s a simple measure to protect your work.
In addition to the above pages, we encourage you to consider some more to further increase your credibility as a business. Not every website you visit might include the following pages but depending on the nature of your business they are certainly worth considering.
Disclaimer
Like the Privacy policy and Terms and Conditions page, this page protects your legal rights. A disclaimer limits the liability for the use of your site. That may seem like a confusing tangle of legal jargon but in simple terms, this page protects you in the case of any legal action you might face in the future.
In an environment as vast and unpredictable as the internet, it’s always best to expect the unexpected. Legally protecting yourself by including a disclaimer page is an extra step that could make a huge difference.
Sitemap
A Sitemap is a list of all the links present on your site. A Sitemap may seem like an unremarkable list of links, but it can work wonders for your SEO. Including a sitemap helps search engines reach every part of your website in turn boosting your ranking in searches.
For smaller sites, crawlers may not be able to reach every link on your website. Having a sitemap, however, puts all those links in on one page, therefore, improving your search engine performance.
Services
If your brand provides services as well, including a services page is key. Include the details of the services you provide and break down this page into sections if it’s necessary. Most importantly, this page needs to describe what makes your services unique and how you stand apart from the competition out there.
FAQs Page
A Frequently Asked Questions page engages with your audience and saves you time. This page conveys you understand your audience’s needs and are attentive to their queries.FAQs are a great way to provide additional information while also encouraging your visitors to move closer to purchasing your products.
Moreover, FAQs help answer common questions that visitors will not need to directly approach you for. In other words, you save valuable time. Ensure you regularly update this page and are always looking for common queries you can address to help your audience.
Blog
Companies that include blogs on average experience 67% more leads than companies without blogs. Blogging can be that extra push that leads to your success. A blog page is a collection of all your blog posts and it’s a great place for your audience to learn more about you and your business.
Your blog posts must be regular and well-written. Provided you put in the effort to create high-quality blog content, this page can help generate significant traffic to your site. Blog posts spread your brand while also boosting your search engine performance.
Copyright Information
The content you produce on your website is yours so it’s important you do everything to protect it. With a site that can be accessed by anyone in the public, it’s easy for someone out there to steal your work. A copyright notice on your site is completely free to include and can prevent others from using your work.
Affiliate Disclosure
Last and one of the most important pages on your website. If you’re earning revenue through affiliate links on your website, it’s important that you include an affiliate disclosure. This informs users that affiliate links are present in your content, and you earn by promoting third-party products or services.
You usually need to include an affiliate disclosure but apart from the legal requirement, this ensures that everything you do is transparent and above board. It tells audiences that you are a source of information that they can trust.
Conclusion
Each successful website has its own flavor and differences but there are some rules which are a good idea to follow across the board. Before you monetize your site through AdSense and before you start earning your revenue, your website should include these pages.
They give your site structure while also giving you the best chances of becoming successful. Yes, including these pages might involve some planning and effort. However, it’s not going to cost you a dollar and in the long run, these additions make all the difference.
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