Most small business websites need five pages: Home, Services, About, Pricing (or "How to get a quote") and Contact. Add a page only when it answers a question customers actually ask, such as a service-area page for a trades business, a menu for a café or a portfolio for a studio. Five good pages beat fifteen thin ones.
Below: what belongs on each page, which extra pages suit your kind of business, how many is too many, and how to set up the menu. If you'd rather get to a first draft quickly, FNJ's AI website builder for small businesses can design these pages from a site you like; the planning below still makes the result better.
Start from the questions, not the page list
Before you name a single page, write down the ten questions customers ask you most often: on the phone, by email, at the counter. A dog groomer's list might start like this:
- Do you take large breeds?
- How much is a full groom?
- How long does it take?
- Where do I park?
- Can I book online?
Every question needs a home on the site. Group them, and the groups become your pages. "How much" and "how long" belong together on pricing. "Where do I park" belongs on contact. If a group holds only one small question, it's a section on an existing page, not a page of its own. It also hands you much of your copy, in customers' own words.
The five pages almost every small business needs
Home
The home page has one job: tell a stranger, within a few seconds, what you do, where or for whom, and what to do next. Put those three things on the first screen, on a phone as well as on a laptop.
A weak headline: "Quality you can trust." A useful one: "Furnace repair and AC servicing across north Denver." The second tells a visitor whether they're in the right place before they read another word.
Below the first screen, a good home page usually runs in this order:
- A short summary of your services, each linking to more detail.
- Proof: reviews, photos of real jobs, accreditations, how long you've been in business if it's relevant.
- How it works, in three steps, if buying from you involves a process.
- Where you work: your address or the areas you cover.
- A closing call to action that repeats the main one.
Services (or Products)
List what you offer, and for each item say what's included, who it's for, and roughly what it costs or how pricing works. "Deep clean: kitchen, bathrooms, inside the oven and fridge, about four hours for a two-bedroom apartment" is more useful than a paragraph about your passion for cleanliness.
One services page is fine when your services are few and closely related. Split them into separate pages when people search for them separately. A contractor who does both attic conversions and kitchen remodels should give each its own page with its own title, photos and FAQ, because someone searching for an attic conversion wants a page about exactly that, not a list of eight services.
About
People buy from people, especially for local services. The about page should say who runs the business, why it exists, what makes it different, and show real photos of you and your team. Be specific about the difference: "we only work on pre-war houses" is a difference, "we care" is not. Add the licenses, insurance or memberships that customers in your trade check for.
Keep it short. Three or four paragraphs and a few photos usually say enough.
Pricing, or how to get a quote
This is the page owners are most tempted to skip. Don't.
If you have fixed prices, list them. If every job is different, show starting prices or typical ranges, explain what changes the price, and describe the quote process: what you need from the customer, how fast you reply, and whether a visit is needed. A visitor who can't find any sense of cost may simply call a competitor who shows one.
Contact
Make every route to you one tap on a phone:
- The phone number as a tap-to-call link, not just text.
- An email address as a link that opens the visitor's mail app.
- Your address, linked to a map, plus parking or access notes.
- Opening hours, including holiday changes.
- A button to your booking tool or form service, if you use one.
- What happens next, such as "We reply within one business day." Only promise what you deliver.
If you serve an area rather than running a storefront, list the towns or neighborhoods you cover so people don't have to ask. And if you want visitors to send details rather than just call, there are several ways to add a contact form to a static website without running a server.
Extra pages by type of business
Beyond the core five, the right extra pages depend on how your customers choose and buy. A rough guide:
| Business type | Pages worth adding | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Trades and home services | A page per main service, service areas, past jobs | People search by job and by town, and want to see work like theirs |
| Salons, clinics, studios | Treatments or classes, team, booking | Customers choose a person as much as a business |
| Accountants, lawyers, consultants | Who you help, how you work, FAQ | Fit and trust matter more than price |
| Shops with a physical store | Visit us, brands or departments, link to the online store | Visitors check what's in stock and how to get there |
| Restaurants and cafés | Menu, book a table, private dining | Hours, menu and booking drive most visits |
| Gyms and class-based businesses | Timetable, memberships, your first visit | New members want to know what to expect |
| Photographers and creatives | Portfolio, packages, inquiry | The work is the sales pitch |
Restaurants are different enough that they get their own guide to what diners look for on a restaurant website. And if your work is the product, a portfolio website is often a better fit than a classic business site.
Pages you can skip for now
Some pages show up on small business sites mainly because templates include them.
- A blog, unless you will genuinely post. A blog whose latest entry is three years old suggests the business has gone quiet.
- A separate testimonials page. Few people click through to it. Put reviews next to the services and prices they support.
- A gallery of everything. A curated handful on each service page does more than 200 unsorted photos.
- A standalone FAQ page, unless the list is long. Answer questions where they come up: price questions on pricing, parking on contact.
- "Our mission" or "Our values" as its own page. Fold anything real into About.
How many pages is right?
There's no correct number, but there is a useful test. Each page needs a distinct purpose, a title you could write in one line, and a first paragraph that couldn't be pasted onto another page. If two pages fail that test, merge them.
As a rough guide:
- One page works for a single service with a simple offer, like a mobile knife-sharpening service or a seasonal pop-up. Use sections and anchor links instead of separate pages.
- Five to eight pages fits most local businesses: the core five plus a few service or location pages.
- More than that makes sense when you have many distinct services that people look for individually.
Be careful with location pages that are copies of each other with the town name swapped. Google's spam policies describe pages like these under doorway abuse, and they rarely help a real visitor. A location page earns its place when it has something true to say about that area: jobs you've done there, travel times, local permit rules, a branch address.
Navigation that gets people to the phone number
- Keep the top menu to four to six items. Services, About, Pricing and Contact, plus your logo linking home, is a complete menu.
- Use the words customers use. "Services" beats "Solutions" and "Prices" beats "Investment". Clever labels make people guess.
- Make the main action a button. "Book now" or "Call us" as a distinct button at the right end of the menu, not one more plain link.
- On phones, keep the call or book button visible without opening the menu. A hamburger menu that hides your phone number costs you calls.
- Put everything else in the footer: address, hours, phone, email, secondary pages and legal links.
Legal pages
If your site uses analytics, embedded forms, booking widgets or cookies, you will probably need a privacy policy, and some countries also expect a cookie notice or a page identifying the business owner. The rules vary by country and by what data you collect, so check what applies where you operate. This is general information, not legal advice. Link these pages from the footer; they don't need a spot in the main menu.
Turning the plan into a site with FNJ
FNJ's AI website builder designs a complete site from your description and a reference, either a screenshot or the link of a site you like. Give it your page list and the customer questions each page should answer, and it builds every page at desktop, tablet and phone widths, with copy written for your business and styled spaces for your own photos. It doesn't build forms, bookings or a store, so link those buttons to tools you already use. See how it works on the AI website builder for small business page, and check how credits are priced before you start.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should a small business website have?
Most need five to eight: Home, Services, About, Pricing or quotes, and Contact, plus a few service or location pages if customers search for those separately. A single page can be enough for a simple, single-service business.
Does a small business website need a blog?
No. A blog helps only if you'll publish useful posts regularly, and an abandoned one makes a business look inactive. Answering common questions on your service and pricing pages is a better place to start.
Should I put prices on my small business website?
Usually, yes. If every job is different, show starting prices or typical ranges and explain what changes the price. Visitors who find no sense of cost may contact a business that shows one instead.
What should go in a small business website's navigation?
Four to six plain-language items such as Services, About, Pricing and Contact, plus one distinct button for the main action, like "Book" or "Call". Put secondary pages and legal links in the footer.
Does a small business website need a privacy policy?
If the site uses analytics, cookies, embedded forms or booking widgets, it probably does, but requirements vary by country. This is general information, not legal advice, so check the rules where you operate.