Web Pages to Include in Your Site
(Page 1 of 4 )
Web surfers expect business web sites to project a certain professional air. They won't trust a web site that falls short, and quite sensibly won't do business with a site they don't trust. If you want to earn their trust, you need to include certain pages when you build your web site. This article will cover those pages.
I'm going to skip the home page, simply because nobody ever forgets to include it. It may feature a place for users to log in, sell your products and/or services, provide navigation to other parts of the site, let users perform a search, display your newest content, or what have you. So check that one off.
Do you have an “About us” page? If you don't, you're missing an excellent opportunity to tell your visitors something about your company – who you are, why you created it, why your visitors should care. Keep it factual. It will probably have several links leading off of it to relevant areas.
Some large companies turn their “About us” pages into home pages for mini-sites in their own right. I've seen these pages lead to areas that list employment opportunities with the company, information for investors, company time lines, information for journalists (including press releases), and more. But the “About us” page needn't be fancy; indeed, it shouldn't be fancy, since you probably want your visitors to check out the other parts of your web site!
Now let's go to your “Contact us” page. You may or may not have it as part of your “About us” page. Personally, I'd suggest a separate page, because not every visitor who needs to contact you for some purpose or other is going to think to check your “About us” page. It should include every means a visitor can use for contacting someone at your company. Phone numbers (toll-free, fax, and others), email, chat, and so on; whatever you use, it should be there, along with your company's hours and information indicating how quickly users can expect an answer.
It should also be detailed, so that visitors to the page know what they need to do to contact particular departments: “To order a product, use this email address or call this toll-free number.” “For technical support for your product, call this number or use our live chat line.” If technical support is available 24/7, you should note that – and if it isn't, you need to include the hours when it IS available. If a user can fill out a trouble ticket 24/7, but you only answer them during normal business hours, that does NOT mean that your technical support department is available 24/7. Don't be misleading about this; you may think it will gain you customers, but when they find out the truth they will be angry at you for the deception.
Next: The Importance of Copyright >>
More Search Optimization Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 7 
