No matter where you are in your business journey, you’re going to find yourself wanting to create a website. But this then leads to questions such as – what pages should you have on your website, how should you lay your site out etc.
Your website needs to portray a professional image, that goes without saying. But it can and should show your personality. As mentioned in an earlier blog on our site (what does your website say about you?) your website ultimately needs to fulfil a function – it needs to grow your business – so what’s the best way to set one up and what pages should you include?
Your website needs to be organised
When creating the website for your VA business, it’s important to remember that you need to have a logical order to your site. You want your website navigation to be as straightforward as possible and each of the pages should be logically named.
But also remember, every page needs to have a definite call to action (or CTA). The CTA is what will drive your website visitors around your site and, ultimately, towards becoming a client. CTAs vary, depending on the purpose of the page or post they’re on, but typically they could include asking someone to leave their details, clicking through to another page or post on your site, and following you on social media.
Basic website pages your website should have
As standard, these are the basic pages every website should have, in the order they ideally should appear on your navigation bar.
Homepage
Often, the main landing page of your site. This is where visitors can read about who you are, what you do and the reasons why they should stick around on your site and pay attention to your business. So give them the main rundown of who you are, what you do and who you serve.
If you like looking at others for inspiration, Jeff Bullas has a blog post detailing 11 kickass blog homepage examples and why they work, whilst HubSpot have a graphic that shows you the 12 critical elements every homepage must have.
About Me (Us)
One of the most visited pages on your site! Your About Page showcases who you are and what you do – but in a way that helps clients see what they’ll gain from working with you. HubSpot has a great resource you can download within their blog post: 15 of the best ‘About Us’ and ‘About Me’ pages and how to make your own.
Services page
This gives an overview of your packages, testimonials and the benefits of working with you. Putting prices on a services page is always going to be something people will either agree with or not – but if you’re all about transparency, then you need to put your prices on your website either on the Services Page or on a separate Pricing page. Alternatively, as Bluchic mention in this article on VA websites, you could always show a range of prices instead.
Blog
Your blog is the one page that will change on a regular basis, so it’s great for your SEO. It also serves as a way for you to showcase your expertise and write content that will drive people over to your website.
Look at every blog as a potential starting point for your visitors – so ensure you’re linking through to other useful content throughout your site – including pages, other blogs and your opt-ins. If you want an idea of what to write about in your blog, here’s one of our articles showing you the easy and essential blog posts every new VA business should have on their website.
Contact page
This should include your main contact details – name, address, phone number and email. You can also list your staff and show a location map for your business, if you wish. But as with all the other main pages on your site, it also needs a great CTA. Check out this article from Yoast, for some good examples of contact pages.
Why internal linking is great
When you’re creating your website pages, bear in mind that internal linking is great for your SEO, as it helps establish the overall architecture and page hierarchy of your site.
Of course, you’ll naturally want to link through from your home page to your services page, and you may well want to link from your about page to your contact page – and that’s ok. But, as Neil Patel mentions in this article, it’s important that you don’t just link between your main website pages and nothing else – you also need to be linking to them from your blog posts and the subpages within your site.
Why you need to promote external links too
When you’re creating the pages of your website, look to link to good quality external sites too. If you link to a site that has a higher domain authority (DA) than yours, it helps to show you as a credible and trustworthy site. But, if you link to rubbish sites – well your DA will go down, as you’ll be tarred with the same brush. Moz has a great post on the 5 reasons why you should link out to other websites – it’s well worth a read.
So how can you do this with your main website pages? Well, if you’re a member of any professional organisations or have had professional training – link through to those sites. If you have charities you support, give them and mention (and link!) and, if you’re showing testimonials on your site – link to those sites as well. So if you are a member of the Society of Virtual Assistants, then you could link through to them or if you have graduated from the VA Mastery Course you could link through to the VACT site to demonstrate your credibility as a Virtual Assistant.
No matter where you are in your business journey, you’re going to find yourself wanting to create a website. Ultimately, your website is another tool designed to help you grow your business, so it’s worth making sure you’re using it well.
By following the advice above, you’ll not only have a clearer idea of what pages you should have on your website, you’ll also have a basic understanding of what they need to include and how they affect SEO. Your next step is to create (or revisit!) your pages and check they are doing the job you want them to do.
Moving Forwards
I think it is worth saying that a website is not a create once and forget tool in your Marketing Toolbox, in fact, it is something that should be treated as a live resource and you should be checking and updating regularly.
If you have not yet launched your VA business and need a little extra help creating your VA website, why not take a look at VA Websites? They’re one of my recommended resources and they can help you get your website set up, with the essential pages, for only £95 a year. Please be aware, this price doesn’t include a blog page. However, one can be included for an additional one-off fee, as detailed in this recent blog post. Don’t forget to tell them that Amanda suggested you reach out.
If you are looking to create your own site (maybe potentially creating sites for others in the future) and want to do a course that will hand hold you through the process check out this website building course for non-techies from Vee Tanner. It’s included as an upgrade to our Enhanced VA Mastery Course.