When it comes to creating a website for your ecommerce business, there’s no definitive answer for the exact number of pages you’ll need. And that’s because not all businesses are alike, and the information they need to present will differ. However, your customers do have a certain expectation of what they will see when they get to your website, and there are certain best practices to maximize conversions and keep customers happy.
Keep reading to uncover nine different types of pages you should have on your website in order to maximize conversions, build customer relationships and keep your business running right.
1) Home Page
Before someone calls Captain Obvious, your homepage is an absolute non-negotiable must. This is the page your visitors will see when they type in your website name or click-through to after searching in Google.
The first thing your homepage should do is establish your presence. Your visitors should have no doubt where they have landed (and that they’re on the page they were looking for). This includes having your business logo in the upper left-hand corner of the page, colors within your branding and a hard-hitting headline front and center.
Remember, you only have about 7-8 seconds on average to grab a visitor’s attention. This means you need to make your page visually appealing as well (but don’t worry about that, Kartra is equipped with hundreds of professionally-designed templates).
If a user is drawn in by your headline (about 20% on average), they will continue to scroll down the page. Make sure you include a brief overview of your services/products, a few WOW testimonials, and a call-to-action on what to do next.
Your home page is also a great place to include a general opt-in form (perhaps for your mailing list). Just don’t forget to include a navigation bar at the top of the page to allow visitors to navigate around your website.
2) Landing Page
Wait…what? Isn’t a landing page the same thing as a homepage?
Actually, no it isn’t. In short, unlike a homepage, a landing page should be specific to a campaign, and it’s where you direct people to from a specific traffic source (or sources), such as a Facebook ad campaign or an email campaign.
The landing page should have a singular focus and prompt visitors to take a singular action. For example, if your Facebook ad promised a free ebook, your landing page would be a continuation of that, with a specific opt-in for that ebook.
If you follow best practices, you should have many different landing pages (that aren’t necessarily permanent). For example, if you run a Facebook ad campaign that targets three completely different niches — realtors, artists and fitness gurus — you should have three separate landing pages that speak directly to these niches. When someone clicks on your ad, they will be directed to the correlating landing page.
3) Product/Services Page
Whether you’re selling a service or a product, you need to have a page that speaks to it. This should include a summary of the products or services you offer.
If you have multiple products, you should include a list with a brief description of each specific product. From there, you can choose to either create a separate page where you go into more detail on each product (along with a buy button), or you can have a long product page, where that information is in one place — requiring less work from your visitor.
I highly recommend including benefits (and even the benefits of the benefits) that your buyers will receive from the products, any important features and how your products are unique.
One important thing to note, however, is your products should only be grouped on one page if they are related. For example, a business selling six different books on business strategies can have them each listed on one page. However, a business selling one book on business strategies, another on holistic healing and a third on DIY art techniques is better off creating a separate website (or at least product page) for each.
4) Thank-You Pages
A thank-you page is incredibly important because it not only lets your customer know their action was successfully completed, but it is a great place to nurture leads and provide extra information. After all, almost everyone experiences some form of buyers remorse immediately after a purchase. A thank you page alleviates that fear, which helps prevents refunds as a result.
If someone just purchased a product, you can include directions on next steps, when to expect shipping, etc. You can also add a video in, filled with rich information, to help keep your customer’s excitement up, and their remorse down.
You can also use your thank you page as a way to spread the word about your great offerings. For example, if a visitor opted in for a free nutrition guide, on your thank-you page you can express your gratitude and then give them the chance to share this offer on social media so their friends can take advantage of this special gift.
Or maybe you want to try to quickly upsell them while they’re there. A great tactic on thank-you pages is offering a limited time offer while they’re already in a clicking mood — get $20 off in the next 30 minutes. You can present this offer and then have it click off to a countdown timer page that redirects to the original price once the 30 minutes are up.
5) About Page
An about page is important for building trust between yourself and the consumer. An about page should tell visitors about your business, the history behind it, the people that work there every day and your mission as a company. Essentially it must answer these questions:
- Who are we and what do we do?
- Why should you choose us over our competitors?
- When did we start?
- How do we do it?
This page is your opportunity to build up your credentials as a business. For example, if you’re a business consultant, an about page is a great place to list businesses you have worked with and any awards you may have received. It also adds a human element to a digital business, so don’t be afraid to put a little personality in there or fun facts about you or your team members.
6) FAQ Page
An FAQ page is your opportunity to prevent problems and confusion before they happen. Take questions you or your support team commonly receive and compile them into one handy page. Some other ideas to include on your FAQ page are questions that address and solve objections potential customers might have and questions that remove barriers. Play devil’s advocate and think of questions and then play your own angel and find a way to answer them positively.
This will not only serve your customers better since they’ll get answers to their questions before they even have to ask, but it will cut down on your workload as well. Plus, if you throw a little personality in there, it may even sway some on-the-fence customers in your favor just for your wit. See Cards Against Humanities FAQ section as an example of that.
7) Testimonial Page
Testimonials are social proof that people (other than you) actually like your product. And while it’s always good practice to sprinkle testimonials throughout your website, it’s also a good idea to have a page dedicated to customers singing your praises.
How your testimonial page looks may vary by your industry. For example, if you’re in fitness, you’ll likely use before and after photos on your testimonial page. Whereas, a life coach may have long quotes about how they “transformed” so-and-so’s life. Regardless of how you format your page, always try to add an image of the person giving the testimonial and give their full name — this adds validity.
8) Privacy Policy
Undeniably the most boring page on your website, a privacy policy is super important to have on your website, especially with the new GDPR policy (read more about it here). A privacy policy is where you let your customers know that their data is safe with you and your policy for handling it. It should cover a list of the information you collect, how that information is used, how they can get a copy of the information you have about them, if their information will be shared (and with whom), and the policies you have in place to protect your visitors and customers.
A privacy policy is technically a legal document, so free feel to get a lawyer involved to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. If you don’t want to shell out big dough, there are sites on the internet where you can enter your business’s information, and for a small fee, they will give you a detailed privacy policy to include on your page.
Make sure you have a footer on each of your pages where visitors can easily access your privacy policy.
9) Terms and conditions
Okay…we lied before. This gives your privacy policy a run for its money for the prize of the most boring part of your website. While not a requirement the way a privacy policy is, a terms and conditions page is a good way to protect you from unruly visitors. Essentially it is a set of rules and guidelines your visitors and customers have to follow in order to use your products or services.
Some rules that may be included in your terms and conditions may be your copyright, billing and subscription rules, forbidden activities, misuse of the website, website disclaimers, limitation of liability, etc. Like your privacy policy, you can either have a lawyer draft one for you or use a generator on the internet for a small fee.
Step back and breathe
To a brand new business owner, nine pages can seem like a thousand. But step back and remember, some businesses really have 1000 pages on their website, and yours won’t be nearly as complicated.
And with Kartra on your side, it will be a piece of cake. Kartra comes preloaded with squeeze page templates that you can use for your homepage or landing page, along with long sales pages for your product pages. It also has templates for FAQ sections, thank you pages and more. All you need to do is drag, drop and customize and you’re on your way to a robust website that will get you sales.
I really like the “Print – PDF – Email” link and function you included at the bottom of your well written and on-point article!
How do I use my WP Blogs in conjunction with Kartra?
Is there a Blog Creation Option in Kartra?
Hi Justin!
We’re glad you like the blog functions we’ve implemented into our site 🙂
WordPress definitely integrates very nicely with Kartra, especially if you use a plugin like Blank Slate when you’re embedding Kartra pages.
Here’s a great place to start with information about how to use the two together:
https://www.kartra.com/blog/host-kartra-web-pages-wordpress-site/
Feel free to swing by our Facebook group as well, to find out how others are using the two tools together:
http://fb.com/groups/kartra
Have a great weekend!
Awesome article.. I am completely smitten. Does your calendar function allow for
1. Recurring class scheduling ( weekly yoga classes)
2. Open time for client books (eg booking discovery calls with coaching clients)
3. Special event scheduling ( allowing clients to sign up for workshops)
Although your training videos are awesome, I Would love to chat with someone.
Hi Sharon, those are great questions!
Yes, our calendars offer all three of those features. You can reach our support team here for more detailed information – https://home.kartra.com/contact.
Dear Kartra Team,
Noted, I am M. El ammari , Interedt to assist me to creaye 9 page in my Website, Could you let me know step by step to finalized the process.
Thanks in advance
Best regards
Hi there! This Kartranaut training will walk you through the process of creating a page using Kartra’s page builder: https://home.kartra.com/kartranaut/subcategory/299.