Business Website Pages: Which Ones Do You Actually Need? Full List

We wrote this guide to business website pages for owners who are planning a new site or replacing an old one. You will see what each page has to do, which pages you can safely skip, and which extras your industry may need. At the end, there is a checklist you can send to a designer before asking for a quote.

Why settle your business website pages before you ask for a quote?

The page list defines the scope of the project. Design, copy, photography, and the price all depend on it. Without a shared list, two quotes are not comparable, because one vendor may be pricing five pages while another is pricing twenty.

This is also where we see projects go wrong most often. An owner asks for "a professional site," and the vendor fills in a standard template. At launch, the case studies page is empty, every service is squeezed into one paragraph, and there is no clear way to request a quote.

If you are stuck on this decision, or if your team keeps disagreeing about it, our business website design work starts here. For example, we decide which services deserve their own page by looking at your actual sales process. That way, the page count comes from real need instead of a package name.

Ask yourself one more question while you draft the list: what must a buyer know before they contact you? The answers are usually about process, timelines, who does the work, and past results. Each answer is a candidate for a section or a page, so your list grows out of buyer questions rather than internal opinions.

How do you sort pages into essential, recommended, and optional?

Start with a simple test. If a buyer cannot decide without a page, that page is essential. If the page makes the decision easier but the sale can still happen without it, it is recommended. Pages that only matter to a specific audience are optional. The table below sums up the job of each one.

What should your homepage really do?

Your homepage does not need to explain everything. Its job is to answer three questions within seconds: what do you do, who is it for, and what should I do next? Therefore, treat it as a summary and a routing page, not as a brochure.

Section order and visual hierarchy are a separate subject, so we cover them in our guide on what a homepage should include. From a page list perspective, one rule matters here. Anything you mention on the homepage needs a page of its own behind it. Otherwise, visitors who want more detail have nowhere to go.

Here is a quick test you can run. Show your homepage to someone who does not know your business for five seconds, then ask what you sell. If they cannot answer, the problem is usually the headline rather than the design. You can even run this test on a text draft, so you catch the issue before spending money on layouts.

Should services live on one page or on separate pages?

Give each service its own page when the buying decision is different. If the customer, the pricing logic, or the process changes, one page will not be enough. On the other hand, splitting small variations of the same service into separate pages only creates near duplicates.

• Build one services overview page that links out to the detail pages.
• On each detail page, cover the scope, the process, the deliverables, and who it suits.
• Use one call to action per page, so readers always know the next step.
• Hold off on a page until you have real content for it.

For the layout of each detail page, see our guide to service page structure. Google also recommends keeping each piece of content reachable through one URL, because duplicates hurt the user experience and waste crawling resources. The Google SEO Starter Guide covers this in more detail.

What belongs on a case studies or portfolio page?

Treat this page as evidence, not a logo wall. For each project, write three things: the problem the client had, the work you did, and the visible result. If you cannot put a number on the result, describing what you delivered is enough. Numbers you cannot verify do more harm than good.

Sort out permissions early as well. Above all, ask for written approval before you use a client's name or logo; without it, describe the project anonymously. For the layout of quotes and reviews, read our guide to the testimonial section.

Honesty is also a legal issue here. The FTC's Endorsement Guides FAQ says testimonials must reflect the honest opinion and experience of the person giving them. Rules differ by country, but the safe habit is the same everywhere: never publish invented reviews or client names.

New company without clients yet? You still do not need to delete this page. Call it "sample work" instead, then show the kinds of work you do, your deliverables, and your process. Next, ask each new client for permission and add real projects over time.

Why is the about page really a sales page?

The about page answers "who is this company?" so visitors can judge you before they send a request. Buyers of larger, longer projects in particular tend to read it closely. Consequently, a paragraph that only lists your founding date will not do the job.

Google's helpful content guidance also encourages making it clear who created your content. So describe your team, your specialties, and how you work, using real details. Our guide on how to write an about us page walks through the writing itself.

One structural decision remains for your page list: do team bios and certificates need their own pages? In a small company, keeping them on one page usually looks cleaner. However, if buyers ask for documents during supplier approval or bids, a separate quality and certifications page speeds things up.

What is usually missing from a contact page?

What is usually missing is everything after the phone number: who will answer, when they will reply, and what details you need. Yet the contact page is where the visitor has already decided to act. Use this short list:

1. Write your phone, email, and full address as text, not inside an image.
2. List your business hours and how quickly you normally respond.
3. Give each branch its own address details if you have more than one.
4. Add a map, but never rely on the map alone for your address.
5. Link to your privacy notice below the form.

If customers visit you in person, you can also describe your business with structured data, which is code that tells search engines what the page information means. Google's local business documentation explains the fields. For the code itself, try our schema generator.

Do you need a separate quote request page?

Yes, if your sales process needs details up front. For example, a short contact form cannot capture dimensions, quantities, delivery locations, or project scope. In that case, the contact page handles general questions while the quote page serves people who are ready to buy.

For a simple service, one form is plenty, and two forms just add confusion. Our guide on lead form design covers field count and question order. Also plan a thank-you page, so you can explain what happens next and measure conversions properly.

Do most of your sales happen by phone or WhatsApp? Keep a form anyway. Some buyers prefer to write outside business hours, and some procurement teams must submit requests in writing. In short, the form does not replace your other channels; it sits next to them as another way in.

Which legal pages should a business website include?

First, legal pages depend on what your site collects and sells, and on where your visitors are. Nearly every site with a form or analytics handles personal data, so a privacy notice is usually the first item on the list.

• Privacy notice, which explains what data you collect, why, and who receives it.
• Cookie notice, which you need if you use cookies and the visitor's location calls for one.
• Terms of use: sets out the rules for using the site.
• Sales terms and returns: relevant if you sell directly on the site.
• Company details: your legal name, address, and any registration details.

Some countries also add specific duties. Germany, for instance, requires commercial sites to publish a set of provider details, so check the rules in each market you target. We explain the technical setup for European visitors in our guide to building a GDPR compliant website.

This section is not legal advice, so have your attorney finalize these documents. Text copied from another site rarely helps, because it describes someone else's data flows. Also write these pages after you choose your forms and analytics tools, because those choices change what the text must say.

Which extra pages does your industry need?

After the core group, the differences come from what your customers ask. The table below is a starting point based on our field experience, not a fixed rule. For example, a manufacturer gets questions about product documents, while a restaurant hears about menus and reservations.

Instead of copying this table, write down the last ten questions customers asked you. If a question keeps coming back, it probably deserves a page or at least a section. Sales emails and call notes are a good source for this list too.

Do you really need a blog and an FAQ page?

A blog makes sense if you want search traffic and can publish regularly. Without a plan, three old posts simply make the site look neglected. So if you lack the capacity, leave the blog for phase two. Our article on why to start a company blog gives a fuller framework for that decision.

An FAQ page, however, is valuable for readers. If your team answers the same question by phone every day, this page will lighten the load. That said, do not build it just to win rich results in search, because Google has changed its approach there. We explain this in our piece on FAQ rich results and FAQPage schema.

When do careers, press, and download pages make sense?

These pages earn their place when a specific audience starts looking for them. So do not add them "just in case." Add them when you have a reason and can keep them up to date. These questions make the call easier:

• Careers: do you hire regularly or want to collect applications?
• Press: do journalists ask you for logos, images, or statements?
• Downloads: does your sales team keep sending the same file?
• Partners or resellers: do you actually expect applications through this channel?

A careers page that says "no open positions" for years sends the wrong signal. If you know it will stay empty, a short note on the contact page is a more honest fix. The same logic applies to catalogs. If you cannot keep a PDF current, a download link on the relevant service page is enough, because an outdated catalog creates wrong price and product questions for your sales team.

Which hidden pages do people forget?

A few pages never appear in the menu; still, the site needs them to work properly. Many quotes do not mention them either, so put them on your list. Ask about these:

• Error page: sends lost visitors back to your main sections.
• Thank-you page: appears after a form submission and makes tracking easier.
• Sitemap file: gives search engines a list of your URLs.
• Search results page: required only if you offer on-site search.
• Redirect rules: move old URLs to their new addresses.

Before launch, test all of them using our pre-launch QA checklist. That way you catch small failures, such as a blank screen after a form submission, before a customer does.

How does the list change on a multilingual site?

In practice, you do not have to open every page in every language. If foreign buyers only purchase two product groups, translating the entire blog is rarely your first priority. Instead, start with the pages that will sell in that market: home, relevant services, proof of work, about, contact, and legal pages for that country.

Also remember that the versions do not need identical content. A company selling into Germany, for instance, has to check local disclosure rules for its German version. Every added language also adds a maintenance burden, so tie this decision to your sales plan.

Technical setup matters as well. Each language needs its own URL, and the language switcher should lead to the same page in the other language. Our multilingual website SEO guide covers this in depth. In addition, pages written in the local search language read far more naturally than direct translations.

Which pages go in the menu and which go in the footer?

Among your business website pages, keep only decision pages in the main menu: services, case studies, about, contact, and the blog if you have one. Legal pages, careers, and the sitemap then belong in the footer. As a result, the menu stays short and nothing important gets lost.

See our navigation menu design guide for those choices. Keep in mind that publishing a page is not enough on its own. Google recommends giving every page you care about at least one link from another page on your site. In other words, an unlinked page stays almost invisible to readers and search engines alike.

What content should you prepare for each page?

A page list alone does not get a site built, because every line needs copy, images, and approval. In practice, projects usually stall while waiting on content, not during design. So add one more column to your list: who supplies the material for this page, and by when?

• Copy: the scope, the process, and common questions for each service.
• Images: real product, team, and workplace photos, with stock images as a last resort.
• Proof: client approvals, certificate copies, and short project summaries.
• Facts: your current legal name, address, phone number, and hours.
• Approval: one decision maker who signs off on the final text.

If gathering everything feels overwhelming, finish your three best-selling services first and leave the rest for phase two. Launching eight complete pages helps you more than launching twenty half-empty ones. For example, if a photo shoot runs late, you can publish with finished copy and update the images afterward.

Which business website pages should you skip?

Some pages only make a site look bigger. Nobody updates them, and they tell readers nothing new. Consider removing these from your list:

• Near identical city or neighborhood pages.
• A vision and mission page with no real statement behind it.
• A gallery with one photo or a news page with one post.
• "Coming soon" pages for content that does not exist yet.

The test is simple: if a page gives readers something new, it stays; if you built it only for search engines, it goes. Google's helpful content guidance also warns against content made mainly to attract search traffic. Besides, growing a small site later is far easier than cleaning up and redirecting pages you never needed.

Sample scenario: what would a machinery manufacturer's page list look like?

The setup below is not a real client; it is a sample scenario we built to show the method. Picture a small machinery manufacturer with three product groups. Most of its sales are domestic, and quote requests arrive by phone and email.

1. Core pages: home, about, contact, privacy, and cookie notices.
2. Sales pages: a detail page for each of the three product groups, plus one overview.
3. Proof pages: completed work and quality certificates.
4. Conversion pages: a quote form with technical questions, then a thank-you page.
5. Phase two: language versions and a blog, once the publishing plan is clear.

As you can see, this first version stays manageable. After launch, real questions and traffic data then show which page is missing. That is why we prefer building in phases over trying to launch everything on day one.

Business website pages checklist: how should you use it?

First, fill out this list of business website pages before you send anything to a designer or agency. Next to each item, simply write "have it," "will create it," or "not needed." Also note who will prepare the copy and images for each page.

• The homepage states what you do and what the next step is.
• Each main service has its own detail page.
• Case studies have written approval or an anonymous format.
• The about page covers people, expertise, and how you work.
• Contact details appear as text and are current.
• The quote form and thank-you page are on the list.
• Your attorney has reviewed the privacy and cookie notices.
• You know the rules for your target countries.
• Extra pages for your industry are decided.
• Menu and footer placement are decided.
• The error page, sitemap, and redirects are on the list.

How should your pages grow after launch?

Your page list does not freeze at launch, because launch is only the start. In fact, your most valuable data arrives after it. Watch which pages get visits, where forms get filled out, and which questions customers keep asking. Then you can decide on new pages from evidence rather than guesswork.

For example, if the same question keeps coming up on calls, add the answer to the service page first. As the topic grows, you can turn it into a separate guide. When you add a page, remember to link to it from related pages; our internal linking strategy guide explains how.

We also recommend reviewing every page at least once a year. Old pricing language, former employees, discontinued services, and expired certificates quietly erode trust. If you remove a page, redirect it to the closest topic instead of simply deleting it, because old links may still point there.

How do you use your page list when requesting quotes?

Attach the list directly to your quote request. That way, every vendor prices the same scope, and you can compare offers side by side. Our article on how to write a website design brief shows how to package this information. In particular, ask whether copywriting and legal text are included, because those items are often left out.

Next to each page, note who will prepare the content. If you will supply the text but expect the vendor to handle photography, say so clearly. Also ask who makes updates after launch, how adding a page works, and whose name the domain and hosting accounts will be under. Your comparison then rests on real scope rather than page count alone.

What should you do if you cannot solve the page plan yourself?

Maybe you have a list but cannot decide how to split your services, which pages come first, or who will write the content. That is common, and the real problem is usually a missing decision rather than design. It is also hard to see what customers ask when you are looking from inside the business.

At this stage, our team listens to your sales process, prioritizes the page list with you, and pins down the scope. After that, we can also take on design and launch. To get a quote tailored to your business, visit our professional web design page. If you send the completed checklist along with your request, the quoting process moves much faster.