4 Website Must Haves for Service Businesses

Whether you’re a photographer, coach, or another type of service-based creative entrepreneur, there are 4 website must haves that I recommend to help you stand out and connect with your ideal client.

Your website is the hub where your potential clients will come to be served, check out your resources, and get more information on how they can work with you. It’s so important to serve them well on every page of your site!

I have one action tip to share for each of your core pages on your site: your Home page, About page, Services page, and Contact page.

These are really actionable things that you can do today to improve your website!

Don’t feel like reading? Watch the video version of this post instead! 👇🏾

Website Must Haves – Home Page: Hero Image with Value Message

This first must have is for your home page. I want you to really focus on making your hero (top) section the best it can be so that your ideal client feels welcome and knows that they’re in the right place.

How to Make Your Hero Section Stand Out

The top of every website page is called the hero section. On your homepage, it will be the first thing that people see when they come to your website – If they’re coming directly to the home page. So you want to optimize this and let people know that they’re in the right place right away by including:

1. A value message
2. An on-brand image
3. A call to action

Writing Your Value Message

Your value message is a one sentence statement that lets people know what you offer, who you serve and how it can help them.

This will tell someone who is your ideal client right away, “Ooh, I’m interested in what she’s offering and I want to stick around and learn more!

The basic formula for writing your value message is:

• I help [insert ideal client] [insert offer] [insert benefit – feel free to include what makes your offer stand out!]
• Example: “I help Creatives use brand & website design to make meaningful connections and have a greater impact.”

Once you’ve gotten that basic sentence structure down, you can play around with it to make it a little more interesting.

So for example, if you’re a photographer, you might say, “I help crazy in love couples celebrate their love story by capturing candid photos that they’ll treasure for a lifetime.”

Your On-Brand Image & Call to Action

After you write your value message, be sure to include an own brand image in this hero section. This can be off to the side or it in the background.

So with that photographer example, I might have a photo of an engaged couple.

Lastly, put a button with a call to action. Sticking with the photography example, I might have a button that says “view portfolio” or “view session information.”

The key is to choose an action you think your ideal client will be most interested in taking as soon as they land on your site. It should relate to your main offer.

Having that call to action is a great way to pull them in and guide them on where to go next.

(Real-life Example: Jasmine Star lets her face and value message be known as soon as you land on her website.)

Website Must Haves – About Page: A Story Your Ideal Client Can Connect With

Because it’s called the about page, we often gravitate towards just putting everything that we can about ourselves there. It’s really tempting to just put all of our credentials, tell all about our family and maybe some of the hobbies we enjoy, and call it a day.

But your about page really isn’t about you.

It’s about making your ideal client feel seen and understood and letting them know that you are the person that can serve them well. And that’s really true for all of your website.

Make Your About Page Audience-Focused

You always want to keep your audience in mind, whether you’re writing content and designing, or choosing images. Make choices based on what your ideal client will resonate with and not just what you like!

When it comes to your story on your about page, you want to focus on parts of your story that your ideal client can relate to. Show them that you:

• Empathize with them
• Know what they’re going through and understand their struggles
• Understand the result they want to achieve
• Can guide them through a transformation. You help them accomplish what they’re looking to accomplish.

Let’s go back to that earlier photographer example. If you work with engaged couples, you might tell a story about your own wedding and your own experience getting your engagement photographs.

Maybe you had something that you didn’t like about your photography experience and it made you uncomfortable.
Now, you strive to help other couples just feel super comfortable and understood throughout their session.

Just share something that shows that you understand what your ideal client is looking for and that you’re the person that can help them achieve that.

(Real-life Example: Jenna Kutcher makes you feel like a friend getting a peek into her personal life.)

Website Must Haves – Services Page: Clear Call to Action

There’s a lot that goes into having a strategic services page design, but the one action tip that I want to share is to make sure that:

1. You have a clear call to action on this page and that
2. It’s sprinkled throughout the page

Choosing Your Call to Action

The call to action on your services page should be whatever potential clients need to do to take the next step towards working with you.

Here are a few ideas:

• Going to your contact page to fill out a questionnaire
• Clicking a button to book a discovery call on your calendar

It’s really up to you and how your process works!

Sprinkling the Call to Action Throughout the Page

Have that button for what to do next near the top of the page, somewhere in the middle of the page, and then again at the bottom of the page.

This way, as people are reading through the page, whenever they’re ready to take the next step they don’t have to keep scrolling to find the button.

I’ve also seen businesses embed a form that potential clients will fill out directly on the services page. Then, they avoid the extra step of having to click a button to go to another page.

You just want to make it convenient for them to take the next step with you. And you want to make it clear what they should do to take that next step.

(Real-life Example: Jodie Brim has buttons sprinkled throughout her photography services page.)

Website Must Haves – Contact Page: A Simple Contact Form

All right, we’ve already made it to our fourth and final website must have! This one’s pretty simple and straightforward, but it’s important:

Make your contact form very simple, straightforward, and clear. You want it to make it as easy as possible for people to contact you.

It can be super tempting to put a lot of questions on your contact page form, but you really want to keep it to only what you truly need for them to be able to take the next step with you. After they’ve contacted you, you can request further information.

You don’t want to ask them a thousand questions when they are first contacting you, because people might see it as a turn off. They’ll get frustrated, and then they won’t fill out the form.

So you really want to keep it as simple as possible!

For example, right now my contact form takes a minute or less to fill out. I only ask what I really need to know to get that process rolling. If there’s anything else I need, I can always reply and ask a follow-up question to clarify. I try to make it as easy as possible for them to take that leap and contact me.

(Real-life Example: Take a peek at my contact page!)

Take Action: Add These Website Must Haves

There you have it: 4 website must haves you’ll want to include as a service-based creative entrepreneur!

Just to recap, here’s what we covered:

• HOME page: a hero section that’s optimized with your value message, on-brand image, and a button with a call to action
• ABOUT page: a story that your ideal client can connect with and that you don’t just make it about you, but really relate back to them, what they’re going through, and how working with you can add value to their lives
• SERVICES page: a clear call to action sprinkled throughout the page, so that it’s easy for visitors to understand how to take the next step
• CONTACT page: keep your form short and simple. Just ask what you truly need to know right then when they first contact you. Remember that you can ask follow-up questions later.

I hope these tips were helpful to you and that they seem doable! These are things that you can update on your website starting TODAY.

They shouldn’t take too much time to add. Just put some thought into what your audience would resonate with and go from there. You’ve got this!