The services page on a small business website throws a lot of owners, marketers and managers.
I like to think of a website as an online salesperson. When someone comes to a website homepage they’re likely at least somewhat interested in what the business does and what it might be able to provide to them.
It’s like a person walking into a small business front door. They might have an idea of what the company does, but they’re still usually pretty early in the process.
They might talk to a receptionist who will bring out a salesperson who will give a quick intro of what the business does. Then they’ll ask the person questions and answer those questions accordingly.
And if all goes well it will lead to a sale.
Your website is the salesperson for online visitors. Your homepage introduces what you do. It can provide some detail on what you offer. Your services page then typically provides more detail so the visitor can decide if what you’re selling is right for them.
So how much detail should you include?
Services Page Details
The best thing to do for your website content is to go through your entire sales process. The next time you work with a prospect, pay attention to the questions they’re asking and all the steps you go through.
Try that a few times and you’ll see patterns. The same questions. The same flow. The same steps to reach a sale or to filter out the prospect if they’re not the right fit.
My thoughts with a homepage are that you don’t want to overwhelm a visitor. You wouldn’t have someone walk into your front door and be handed a big binder full of details on what you can do for them.
So the homepage is the introduction. The call to action should mostly be to the services page where you can provide most of the detail.
And that detail should include the most asked questions and answers.
For example, pricing is almost always a question prospects want to know. And they usually want to know it early. They want to know from the beginning if they’re even able to afford what you’re selling.
Prospects also want an overview of the product. They usually also want some information on how it works and what they can expect if they signup for the service.
Now, one item to consider is how much you want the website to sell versus how much you want to sell over the phone or in person.
If you want to do more over the phone, include less detail. If you want to have people ready to buy when they call or contact, include more detail.
Obviously there are nuances with every business. But this is pretty much how it works in most cases.
And the thing is, you can always make changes to the content. Try including all the detail necessary to close the deal. See how that goes. If it’s not working, remove some detail and ask for a phone call earlier on the page.
FAQs
A frequently asked questions page is good to have. I’m finding out that more and more people click on these pages.
My experience has been that you want to include answers to the most common questions on the homepage, services page and about page.
Then for questions that kind of fit outside of the usual sales process you can include them on the FAQ page.
For example, say you’re selling a supplement of some kind. Customers cross all demographics. A common question that comes up, but that doesn’t fit for most people is:
Can I take this supplement if I’m pregnant?
That question and answer are great for an FAQ page. If your target audience is pregnant women, though, for something you’re selling the answer might be a better fit for the services page.
Conclusion
The short answer to the title of this piece is – include more detail than you’re probably assuming. Your website can do a lot of work for you. It’s your online salesperson. People are comfortable buying things online. Even services. And that will continue. But you have to make sure you walk visitors through your sales process just as you would in real life.
In order to do that, you generally need more detail than you think.
