How Many Web Pages Do I need?

How Many Web Pages Do I Need?

Virtually, without exception, the majority of Website Owners we speak with, significantly, underestimate the amount of Web Pages required for their new Websites.

This is mainly due to a lack of understanding of how people will interact with their Websites and what building a Website, entails. Needless to say, a lack of information/pages can have a detrimental effect on the success of any Website. How many times have you visited a Website and been frustrated by the lack of useful information?

A Typical Website Objective

Since, for many, their main reason for having a Website is to generate more sales leads, this article will concentrate on what needs to be considered, content wise, to turn a visit into an action by the Website visitor. Therefore, as you have probably realised by now, the number of pages in a Website can, in fact, have an instrumental effect on the overall success of any Website.

What Are The Thought Processes When Deciding What Web Pages To Include

Typically, when people come to us looking for a Website, not surprisingly, their thought process has not gone much beyond, the decision to, actually, have a Website. It often comes as a surprise to them when we start raising issues, such as;

What type of people will be visiting their Website?
What type of questions/issues will visitors have and expect to be answered?
If visitors find them on the Internet, then, most likely, they will also be looking at competitor Websites. In which case, how do they compare to their competitor Websites?
Should they create a Web Page for each Product/Service?
How much would visitors want to know about their company?
Should they include additional pages more useful to existing clients?
Can their Website be used as a day-to-day business tool?
Have their Website visitors enough information to take the enquiry forward?
Will the lack of Web Pages have a detrimental effect on the success of their Website?
Why would Search Engines want to index their Website?
How can they use their Website to get important sales messages over?

To demonstrate how these types of issues/questions should dictate the number of pages you require, the points, above, will be explained in the context of a fictitious Cleaning Company, FCC.

Thinking Through What Information Your Website Visitors Will Require To Progress Their Enquiry

The Facilities Manager of a large business is looking for a company to clean the outside of all their buildings, nationwide. They have carried out a search in Google and FCC were one of the ten top Websites to be returned for that, particular. search.

The Manager is looking for a company with the expertise and resource to handle such a large project.

What Type Of Visitor is Your Website Aimed At?

The Manager has already discounted the first four Websites they have looked at. Although, each of these Websites seemed to offer a Building Cleaning service, their Building Cleaning service did not seem to carry much weight on their Websites i.e. they were mixed in with other residential services, such as, Carpet Cleaning, Window Cleaning etc. To the Manager, this told them that, perhaps, these companies were geared more towards the Residential market rather than a commercial one.

Competitor Websites And Meeting Informational Requirements

The next five Websites the Manager looked at, appeared to be more geared towards large scale Building Cleaning. The Websites had more of a corporate feel and gave the impression of professionalism on a larger scale. However, although all of the Websites had some of the information the Manager wanted, none of them were able to answer all the Manager's immediate questions. This was a little frustrating to the Manager and they were a little surprised that the Websites didn't include more information on other key issues, such as: Staffing and Health & Safety Polices; how the project would be managed; how disruption would be handled; what approaches could be used; more detailed information on the company; and could tests be carried out pre contract.

Creating Positive First Impressions By Understanding Your Visitors

The Manager then came to the Website of FCC. Although, it was obvious, FCC also had a Residential Division, the Website was also heavily geared towards commercial projects and gave the impression of a professional outfit. The Manager was also impressed, there was a whole section dedicated, specifically, towards Building Cleaning. It was obvious to the Manager, by identifying all of the obvious informational requirements in their Website, FCC are, certainly, a company who seem to understand the requirements of the corporate client.

The Manager decided to shortlist FCC and three other companies. However, because, FCC appeared to make more of an effort and demonstrated via their Website, a better understanding of what informational requirements corporate clients would need, the Manager, even at this early stage, was beginning to have good "vibes" about FCC and was looking forward to finding out more about the company, even more so, than the other short listed Websites.

Use Your Website As A Proactive Business Tool For Helping In The Day-to-day Running Of Your Business

Since FCC had already identified this important aspect of their Website, there Website was proving to be an invaluable tool in their negotiation processes. When confirming their various Policies, clients were always redirected to the page on their Website where PDF copies of all their Policies could be downloaded. FCC also installed a Project Gallery component in their Website which captured all project images that could easily be accessed by clients via their own password protected area. Not content with this, FCC also installed a Helpdesk System on their Website to help streamline all enquiries coming into the business. The added benefit of this system, it was hoped, would demonstrate to clients, the professionalism of FCC, instead of, as with many of their competitor Websites, just talking about it.

Optimising Your Website For Search Engines

Everyone involved in the Web Design industry knows, as far as Search Engines are concerned, more information in a Website, translates to more information being indexed. In which case, no one has to be a Rocket Scientist to realise, having more information i.e. more pages, can, significantly, increase their Website's chances of being indexed favourably by Search Engines. With a little bit of forward planning, FCC identified many key search phrases, potential clients would use in Search Engines to find their type of services. These were weaved in throughout their Website, making their Website very attractive to Search Engines. In total, FCC identified at least fifty other key search phrases that were able to be incorporated within the Website, for the simple reason, there were a sufficient number of pages to include this number of search phrases.

In Summary

The vast majority of Website owners, typically, would have tried to include all of the above in, perhaps, a ten page Website. And for the above reasons, we hope you now realise (if you hadn't already), the problems that Website owners create for themselves by limiting the number of pages in their Websites.

Since FCC realised the importance of addressing informational requirements of both Residential and Commercial clients, they were able to structure their Website into two distinct divisions, Commercial and Residential.

Although, their Residential area had similar pages to their Corporate area, such as, Our Approach and Why Use Us pages, these pages were changed to reflect the requirements of their Residential clients. FCC also included additional pages for each of their services i.e. Carpet Cleaning, Patio Cleaning, Spring Cleaning etc. As with their commercial clients, FCC quickly realised, if their Website was too corporate based and dedicated more towards commercial clients, clients would be put of by this and would, most likely, look for another company, more geared up towards Residential clients.

Within the commercial area of their Website, further sections were included for specific industry types, such as, Pubs & Restaurants, Building Sites etc.

Turning Visits Into Potential Sales Enquiries

The point of the above exercise is to highlight that, even though you may be able to attract visitors to your Website, the issue still remains of trying to convert a visit into a potential sales enquiry. By identifying, that different types of visitors to your Website will have different types of requirements, and by addressing these requirements in a professional fashion i.e. by acknowledging the fact that certain issues/informational requirements require their own Web Page, and making this fact obvious to your visitors, the opportunities of turning visits into potential sales leads, will be greatly improved.

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