Chapter 8: Plan Your Pages

By now, you know quite a bit about the website you’re building.

You know what your business does, who your customers are, what you want visitors to know, and what you want them to do when they reach your website.

Now we’re going to turn that information into pages.

Before you start clicking Add New Page in WordPress, take a few minutes to decide what pages your website actually needs. You probably need fewer than you think.

Go back to the worksheet you completed in Chapter  2 — Before You Build.

Look at what you wrote about your business, your customers, and what you want visitors to do.

Those answers should help determine your pages.

Start With the Basics

Most small-business websites can start with four basic pages:

Home

Your homepage introduces your business and helps visitors quickly figure out:

  • Who you are
  • What you do
  • Where you are
  • Who you serve
  • What they should do next

We’ll build this page separately because your homepage has a bigger job than the other pages.

About

This is where you tell people about the business and the people behind it.

You don’t need to write your autobiography.

Tell visitors enough to understand who they’re doing business with, how the business got started, your experience, and anything that helps establish trust.

Services or Products

What do you actually sell or do?

Depending on your business, this might be one page listing everything you offer, or several pages covering individual services.

Joe’s Auto Repair might eventually have pages for:

  • Brake Repair
  • Oil Changes
  • Air Conditioning Repair
  • Engine Repair

But Joe doesn’t have to create four separate service pages just because he can.

Start with what makes sense.

Contact

Make it easy for someone to reach you.

Your Contact page might include your:

  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Business address
  • Hours
  • Contact form
  • Map or directions

Not every business needs every one of those.

What Other Pages Does YOUR Business Need?

This is where your website stops being a generic website and starts becoming your business website.

A restaurant might need a Menu page.

A hair salon might need Services and Pricing.

A contractor might need a Gallery.

A nonprofit might need Donate and Volunteer pages.

A bed-and-breakfast might need Rooms and Reservations.

A business that gets the same questions over and over might need an FAQ.

Don’t Create Pages Just to Fill a Menu

There is no rule that says a business website needs seven pages.

If your website needs four pages, build four good pages.

You can always add another one later.

A small website that clearly answers a customer’s questions is much more useful than a large website filled with pages that don’t really say anything.

Keep Your Customer in Mind

For every page you’re considering, ask yourself:

Why would one of my customers visit this page?

If you have a good answer, the page probably belongs.

If the answer is:

Because websites are supposed to have one.

Maybe it doesn’t.

Let AI Help You Sort It Out

Here’s where a lot of people get stuck.

You know everything your business does. That’s the problem. You know it so well that it all runs together. You fix brakes, you change oil, you do inspections, you sell tires, you do fleet work for two local businesses, and once in a while you tow a car for a regular customer.

So where does all of that go? One page? Six pages? Which things belong together?

This is a job where an AI assistant can really help.

What Is an AI Assistant?

An AI assistant is a program you talk to by typing, the same way you’d send a text or an email. You ask a question or describe what you need, and it writes back. Some well-known ones are Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. Most have a free version that’s more than enough for this.

You don’t need to know anything technical to use one. If you can describe your business to a friend, you can describe it to an AI assistant.

Give It Everything

Start by telling it what your business does. Don’t organize anything first. Just list everything, in whatever order it comes to mind. The messier, the better. Sorting it out is the AI’s job.

Then ask it to help you organize it into website pages.

Try Something Like This

I own a small auto repair shop in Inverness, Florida. I’m building a simple website for my business. Here’s everything we do: brake repair, oil changes, state inspections, tire sales and installation, air conditioning repair, engine diagnostics, fleet maintenance for local businesses, occasional towing for regular customers, and we sell used cars now and then.

Most of my customers are local families and retirees. The main thing I want people to do is call for an appointment.

What pages should my website have, and what should go on each one? Keep it simple. I’d rather have a few good pages than a lot of thin ones.

Notice what that request includes: what the business is, where it is, everything it does, who the customers are and what the owner wants visitors to do. Those are the same answers you wrote on your planning worksheet. The more of them you include, the better the answer you’ll get.

Keep the Conversation Going

The first answer is a starting point, not the final word. You can ask follow-up questions, just like you would with a person:

  • Should fleet maintenance have its own page, or go on the Services page?
  • I don’t do much towing. Should I even mention it?
  • Which of these should go on my homepage?
  • Can you make this simpler? Four pages at the most.

Keep going until the plan makes sense to you.

You’re Still the Boss

An AI assistant is a helper, not the owner of your business. Keep a few things in mind:

  • You know your business better than it does. If a suggestion doesn’t fit how you actually work or what your customers ask about, ignore it.
  • Check anything it tells you as fact. AI assistants can sound sure of themselves and still be wrong.
  • Don’t share private information. You don’t need to give it passwords, account numbers or your customers’ personal details to plan your pages.
  • Keep it honest. If it suggests customer reviews, awards or claims you don’t actually have, leave them out.

Used this way, an AI assistant is a bit like a patient friend who’s good at organizing. It won’t build your website for you, but it can help you see your own business the way a visitor will.

When you have a page list that makes sense, write it down below.

Make Your Page List

Before moving on, write down the pages you’re going to start with.

My website will have:

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

Don’t worry if you change this later.

You probably will.

Websites grow and change along with businesses.

For now, we’re simply making the blueprint.

Next, we’re going to create these pages in WordPress — but we’re not going to worry about making them pretty yet.

Prefer the Down & Dirty Version? Step 9: Planning Your Pages

Our illustrated Down & Dirty guide walks you through these final touches with numbered instructions, screenshots and checkboxes.

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