The 7 Pages Every Small Business Website Needs (Yours Probably Skips 3)

The website with pages in all the wrong places

Most small business websites have too many pages nobody visits and too few of the ones that actually convert. The owner added a “Blog” they never update, a “Gallery” with three photos, and a “Testimonials” page nobody clicks — while missing pages that would genuinely help customers decide to hire them. Let me pop the hood on the pages every small business website needs — the seven that earn their place, and why yours probably skips three of them.

Why page structure matters more than owners think

Every page on your site is either doing a job or getting in the way. The right pages guide a visitor from “just landed” to “ready to contact you.” The wrong ones — or missing ones — leave gaps in that journey where customers drop off. Good site structure isn’t about having more pages; it’s about having the right ones, each doing a specific job in the path to conversion.

This connects to the whole idea of the website as a system, not a brochure. The Nielsen Norman Group’s research on website essentials consistently shows that users look for specific information in predictable places — and a site missing those expected pages frustrates visitors and loses them. The seven pages below are the ones users expect and the ones that convert.

The 7 pages every small business needs

1. Home

The page that has to work hardest. In five seconds it needs to tell a visitor who you are, what you do, who you serve, and why you’re worth their time — plus a clear path to the next step. Most home pages fail by being vague or all about the business instead of the customer. The home page is the front door; make it obvious what’s inside and how to come in.

2. Services (or individual service pages)

Where customers find out exactly what you offer and decide whether you can solve their problem. For a business with a few distinct services, individual service pages often work better than one crowded page — each can target its own search and speak to that specific need. The key is writing them so they sound like a person, not a brochure, and focus on the customer’s problem.

3. About

The trust page. Customers visit About to answer “can I trust these people?” As covered in why your About page should be about your customer, the best About pages lead with the customer’s problem and use your story as proof you can solve it — with real faces, not stock photos. This page is a bigger conversion driver than most owners realize.

4. Contact

Where intent becomes action. It needs every way to reach you — phone (clickable), email, a simple form, location or service area, hours. And the form has to actually work; a huge number of businesses lose leads to broken or leaky contact forms without ever knowing. Make contacting you effortless and confirm every path works.

5. Testimonials / Reviews (or reviews woven throughout)

Social proof is one of the most powerful conversion elements there is. Whether it’s a dedicated page or reviews woven across the site, customers need to see that others trusted you and were glad they did. For many businesses, weaving proof throughout the key pages works better than isolating it on one page nobody visits — but the proof has to be present somewhere prominent.

6. A pricing or “how it works” page

This is one of the three most businesses skip, and it’s a mistake. Customers want to understand what working with you costs and what the process is before they commit. Even if you can’t list exact prices, a page explaining your pricing approach, what’s included, or how the process works removes friction and builds trust. Hiding this information makes customers hesitate or leave to find someone more transparent.

7. An FAQ or resources page

The second commonly-skipped page. A good FAQ answers the questions customers actually ask before hiring — addressing objections, clarifying process, reducing the back-and-forth. It also captures “People Also Ask” search traffic and reduces the questions that clog your inbox. It does double duty: converts hesitant visitors and earns search visibility.

The three most businesses skip

Notice the pattern in what gets skipped: pricing/how-it-works, FAQ, and a genuinely customer-focused About. All three are trust-and-clarity pages — the ones that answer the questions holding a customer back from contacting you. Businesses skip them because they’re harder to write than a generic “Services” page, but they’re exactly the pages that move a hesitant visitor to action. The third skipped page is often the pricing/process page specifically, because owners are nervous about discussing cost — but that transparency is what builds trust.

The pages you probably don’t need (yet)

Just as important as adding the right pages is not cluttering with the wrong ones:

• A blog you won’t maintain. An abandoned blog with three posts from two years ago hurts more than no blog. Only add one if you’ll actually keep it going.
• A giant gallery that’s slow to load and rarely visited. A few strong photos woven into service pages beat a separate photo dump.
• Redundant pages that split the same information across multiple thin pages instead of one strong one.

Fewer, stronger pages beat more, weaker ones — the same principle behind good site performance and keeping a site fast.

The page audit for your site

1. List your current pages. What do you have, and what job does each do?
2. Check for the seven. Home, services, about, contact, proof, pricing/how-it-works, FAQ. Which are missing?
3. Identify the skipped three. Most likely pricing/process, FAQ, or a customer-focused About. These are your priorities.
4. Cut the dead weight. Abandoned blog, thin gallery, redundant pages.
5. Make sure each page does its job in the path from landing to contact.

Final Thoughts

Every small business website needs seven pages that each do a specific job — home, services, about, contact, proof, pricing/how-it-works, and FAQ — and most sites skip the last three because they’re the hardest to write and the ones about cost and objections. But those are exactly the trust-and-clarity pages that move a hesitant visitor to contact you.

Audit your pages this week against the seven, add the ones you’re missing (probably the pricing and FAQ pages), and cut the dead weight. The right pages, each doing its job, convert far better than a pile of pages that don’t.