the four pages you need on your squarespace website
It’s easy to look at the blank website before you and think… “Umm where do I start? There’s so much to do.”
Guess what! You don’t have to create a million pages to get your website up and running. All it really takes is FOUR pages to create a website that serves you.
Okay truthfully, you could actually start by packing everything into 1 simple home page if you really want to (low barrier to entry, yay). So you could even think of the four pages I list below as four SECTIONS to have on your website that could go all on the same (home) page.
Ok let’s get into what you need!
Page 1: Home
First things first, we need a home page that’ll serve as the first page your visitors see. It’s like the intro to your business and should immediately communicate a few things to your website visitors.
Your home page should communicate:
What you do
Who you serve
How you help
What their next step is
Should they contact you? Shop your products? Sign up for your newsletter? Clearly point them in the next step you want them to take.
A formula for your home page layout:
You can really do whatever you feel like with your home page + experiment with what connect with your audience and helps you reach your goals. But here’s a starting point if you’re just not sure what to include!
SECTION 1: Banner + Brand Statement
Start with a banner image of your product (or an on brand image) with a brand statement overtop that quickly tells yours audience what you do and who you serve.
For example, here’s what I’ve got at the very top of my home page: “I help creative solopreneurs showcase the heart + soul of their work with fun + unique websites.”
SECTION 2: Service/Product Spotlight
Summarize your product(s) or service and include a link to your product page where you’ll get into more detail.
SECTION 3: About
Include a sentence or 2 about you/your business (bonus: add a photo!) and link to your about page for more details.
SECTION 4: Call to Action (CTA)
This is where you’ll tell your visitors what the next step you want them to take is. Maybe it’s signing up for your newsletter, visiting your blog, scheduling a consult… whatever the next step to getting into your sales/connection pipeline is!
Page 2: Services/Product
If you offer products that people can purchase immediately online, you’ll want this to be a shop page with all your products added for people to look through!
If you’re a service based business, you’ll want to outline your service to clarify to potential customers what you do! (Check out my services page for an example.)
A few questions your services page could answer:
What do you do? How do you help?
Who are you services for?
What problems do you solve for your clients?
What sets you apart from similar service providers?
Have others enjoyed working with you? (Testimonials!)
What are you different service packages? What are your rates?
What’s my next step to hiring you?
Now don’t look at that list and feel like you need a long paragraph to answer each question. Sometimes all it takes is a few words to answer these (but you can get into as much detail as you want).
Page 3: About
You make look at the about page and cringe - do you really have to talk about yourself? YES! And no.
The truth is, people like to know WHO they’re working with or WHO they’re purchasing from. We like putting faces to names and we love human connection. Building trust with potential clients and customers is huge - but it’s really up to you on how personal you want to make this page.
Some ideas for your about page:
Headshots of you/your team. (This is an important one!)
The story behind your business. How did you start? How did you get to where you are today? How do you understand the struggles of your clients?
Your business values. What matters to you?
Depending how personal your business is, a PERSONAL about section can be fun too. Share a little bit about you!
An FAQ section.
Page 4: Contact
This one’s pretty self-explanatory + simple: make it easy for folks to get in contact with you! All you need is a contact form and you’re good to go.
Bonus: Include an FAQ section below your contact form to answer some common questions your receive to help trim down your inbox!
Bonus: Blog
Yeahhhhh I had to include this one as a bonus. A blog can be an intimidating beast to add to your website and is totally optional to start. But…
A blog can be a huge help for getting traffic to your website.
A blog is really helpful way to boost your SEO (“Search Engine Optimization” - aka it helps you show up on Google).
Some tips to make a blog a little less intimidating:
You don’t need a million articles. Start with THREE value-packed blog posts that talk about specific things in your niche. Then slowly build that up to 8-10 articles!
Hide dates on your blog posts. Dates can quickly make your blog feel outdated. No one needs to know how long it’s been since you published an article! Keep dates hidden + your posts will always feel relevant.
Get article ideas from Google + Pinterest. If you start typing your niche into google, what comes up as relevant searches? Do the same on Pinterest! Searching “How to website design” on Pinterest really helped me come up with some article ideas. (I didn’t look at the posts + copy them! Just got inspired by the titles to create my own content.)
Hope this helped you narrow down what you need to include on your Squarespace website! Feel free to reach out with questions in my email!
