"How many pages do I need?" is one of the first things owners ask me. Most of them expect me to say more. My answer is usually: fewer than you think, but the right ones.
- More pages isn't better. The right pages are.
- Each page is a door Google can send people through. One door is fine if you do one main thing in one area.
- If you offer several services in several areas, give each its own page, with something real behind the door.
Every page is a door
Think of your website as a building, and each page as a door into it. When someone searches on Google, Google doesn't send them to your building in general. It sends them to one door: the page that best matches what they typed.
A one-page site is a building with one door. That's not a bad thing. If you do one main job in one area, a single good door with a clear sign over it gets people in.
But say you paint interiors, exteriors and kitchen cabinets, and you work in three towns. Now people are searching for cabinet painting in one of your towns, and knocking on a door you don't have. Google can't send them to a page that doesn't exist, so it sends them to someone who has one.
When one page is enough
A one-page site is a great start, and for some businesses it's all they need for a while. It works well when you're new and want to be online this week, not next month. It works when you do one main service. And it works when most of your jobs come from referrals, and people only need to check that you're real.
A good one-pager still does the whole job: what you do and where, photos of real work, your reviews, a little about you, and a way to call or book in one tap. It can be live in days.
What it can't do is be the best answer for ten different searches at once. One door can only have one sign over it.
When you need more doors
You need more pages when you have more to say to Google. Usually that's one of three things: you offer several services that people search for separately, you work in several areas, or you want to be found for searches that are crowded in your city.
For most trades, a small site covers it: a home page, a page for each main service, your work, your reviews, a bit about you and a way to get in touch. Bigger businesses add a page for each area they serve. Every page is a door with its own sign, and every door is one more chance to show up when someone nearby is searching.
It's also how we start the Google work. Each service page aims at one search you can actually win, and the site grows toward the harder ones from there.
Don't open doors into empty rooms
Here's the mistake I see going the other way. Someone hears that more pages help, so they make twenty: one for every neighbourhood, each with the same three sentences and the name swapped. That's twenty doors into empty rooms.
Customers notice, and so does Google. A visitor who opens a door and finds nothing useful turns around and leaves, and Google learns that your page wasn't a good answer. A thin page can do more harm than no page at all.
"Twenty doors into empty rooms won't get you found. Five doors with something behind them will."Davis, on how many pages you need
A good page has something real behind the door: photos of that kind of job, what the work involves, the questions people ask about it, and a clear way to book. If you can't fill a page with something useful yet, you don't need that page yet.
Start small, grow into it
The good news is you don't have to decide forever on day one. Start with what you need now, then add a door each time you have something to put behind it: a new service, a new area, a set of photos from a job you're proud of.
Our websites page shows every size, from a small site to a large one, and what each one includes. Not sure which you need? On a free 30-minute call we'll look at how you work and tell you honestly. Sometimes the answer is a small site.
