What should a business website include?

Start with the questions a customer brings

Pick one type of customer and one service or product you actually offer. Write down what that person needs to know before contacting you. If you work with different audiences, don’t assume they all need the same explanation.

• Is this for me? Explain what you do, who it helps and where you genuinely provide it.
• What would I be asking for? Describe the scope in ordinary words. Clarify any important limits rather than letting a picture or a slogan do all the explaining.
• Why should I believe it? Use relevant work examples, photos you have permission to show or approved customer feedback. If you don’t have those yet, explain your approach without inventing proof.
• What happens next? Give the visitor a clear contact route and explain only the next step you can actually offer.

For a service whose price depends on the job, explain what information is needed to discuss it. Don’t fill the gap with a made-up starting price or a promise that every project works the same way.

Turn the answers into a small page plan

Your homepage can introduce the business and point to the most useful detail. A service page can answer a more specific question. A work page can hold relevant examples, and the contact route can help someone act.

Those are possible homes for information, not a compulsory set of pages. A focused single page may be enough for a simple offer. Separate pages make sense when they each have a useful job; repeating the same explanation under slightly different titles doesn’t help the reader.

For every planned page, write one sentence: “After reading this page, the visitor should be able to…” If two pages have the same answer, consider combining them. If an important question has no home, decide where to answer it.

A worked example: a bike-repair business

Fictional training example — not a client project.

Imagine a workshop that repairs everyday bikes by appointment. Its potential customer wants to know whether their bike is suitable, how to arrange a visit and what information to send.

Visitor’s question: can you help with my bike?

A repairs page explains the types of work the workshop accepts and any real exclusions. It uses clear headings instead of a general claim about “complete solutions”.

Visitor’s question: what do I do next?

A contact section explains how to request an appointment and asks for the information the workshop needs. It doesn’t imply an online booking system if none exists.

Useful supporting material

Photos of work the workshop has permission to show can help explain the service. They aren’t presented as evidence of a result the business hasn’t measured.

The page plan follows the customer’s questions. It doesn’t start with an arbitrary page count, a new feature or a list of search phrases.

Exercise: plan one useful page

Choose a real offer, but start with notes you’re comfortable sharing. Fill in the worksheet below. The result should be a page brief someone can write or design from, rather than a collection of slogans.

Read your plan back as if you didn’t know the business. Does the answer help the visitor decide, or does it leave them with the same question? Replace any unsupported claim with a fact you can explain.

Make the finished content easy to use

Give each page a title and headings that describe its contents. Use link labels that explain where they lead. If an image carries information, describe that information in its text alternative; don’t rely on decorative images to explain your offer. W3C’s writing tips for accessible web content explain these basics.

Ask someone to find one answer and the next step on a phone. Their hesitation may show where the explanation or navigation needs work. This checks whether the content is usable; search impressions, clicks and enquiries need separate evidence.

If you already have a site, use the repair-or-redesign guide to decide how much needs changing. If repetitive admin begins after the enquiry arrives, look at reducing manual data entry as a separate improvement.

If the page already explains the offer but the inbox is quiet, trace the enquiry route before changing the content again.