What information should go where on your website?
Here are some of the tips I give to my clients when they hire me to write B2B website content for them.
Many websites have several more pages than this, but I wanted to cover the basics of the essential content found on almost all service-based sites.
Homepage.
The less text, the better.
The point of the homepage is to hook people with a message that conveys your value and states clearly who you’re for.
The homepage should also give the reader one or two buttons “above the fold” (the bit visible when the page loads and before you’ve scrolled down) to take them to the next page.
From the search engine optimisation (SEO) point of view, reducing your “bounce rate” by taking the viewer to another page is A Very Good Thing.
Bounce rate?
Bounce rate is the proportion of visitors who visited just one page on your site before clicking the Back button or otherwise leaving.
A high bounce rate is a sign to Google and other search engines that the content isn’t that hot.
About page.
The big thing I’ve learned about this is that the About shouldn’t just be some potted history.
The secret title of this page should be “Problems I/we solve”.
It’s one of the most visited pages on most sites, so use it to re-emphasise how you can help first, then include a bit of personal stuff later.
This is the page for dialling up the personality, so you should have most fun with writing the personal bits.
A cool photo of you is essential, though I’d argue this ought to be on the homepage, too.
Services page.
If there’s only one service, you might not need a page labelled “Services”.
Otherwise, it’s good to have big bold packages/services listed and, ideally, clear prices.
Grouping services and packages in 3 is always smart. Viewers will often be naturally inclined to pick the “safe” middle option – not too cheap, not too expensive. So, think about that when constructing your offering.
Pricing page.
If you’re brave, talk about the factors that determine your price and state specific prices for each service.
Think of all the pricing questions you get and answer them here at scale. It’s the number one question for most customers, so why shy away from addressing it?
Blog page.
Most blog pages are automatically generated but there’s still usually a way to add some introductory text at the top to set the scene about what the blog aims to deliver – and to remind people to join your email list, if you have one.
Focus on filling such a page with helpful expert articles that would be interesting and relevant to your ideal customers.
Think of all the problems they might have that you could answer at scale.
Think of all the reasons that might stop them from buying from you and answer those objections through content, too.
This sort of material is far more valuable than the traditional “latest news” channel that would display who your newest recruit is or where your last trade show appearance was. Trust me – no one cares about any of that.
People are selfish. They’re looking at your site and thinking “what’s in it for me?” so give them helpful answers – or don’t bother with a blog at all.
Contact page.
Keep it short.
Give people the option of grabbing your email address direct or filling in a simple form to reach you.
Include your social links. Consider putting these into the footer, too, but make them low key and all in the same colour.
DO NOT put social buttons at the top of this or any other page.
Let’s wrap up.
That’s plenty to get you started with. As for writing the content, you might be able to do this yourself.
If you need professional support to edit what you’ve written or to write completely fresh content from scratch, drop me a line. I’ve been doing this stuff for 10+ years.
