Eight non-negotiable: home, about, services/products, pricing or contact, individual service pages, case studies or portfolio, FAQ, and a real privacy policy.
**1. Home** — answers "what do you do, who do you do it for, and why are you different" in the first 10 seconds.
**2. About** — real founder bio, real photos of real people, real founding story. The most under-invested page on most sites; for trust-driven services it's often the second-most-visited page after home.
**3. Services or Products overview** — list of what you do, with each item linking to its own dedicated page.
**4. Individual service pages (one per service)** — this is where SEO actually happens. A "we do plumbing, HVAC, and electrical" page won't rank for any of the three. Three separate pages will.
**5. Pricing OR Contact** — pricing page if you can be transparent (massive trust + qualification benefit). Contact page if you must quote everything custom — but make it human, not a faceless form.
**6. Case studies or portfolio** — concrete client work, with names where possible. "We helped [client] go from X to Y" beats every adjective in your home page hero.
**7. FAQ** — answers the 10–15 questions you get on every sales call. Doubles as schema-markup-eligible SEO content (FAQ schema).
**8. Privacy policy + terms (real, not template)** — legally required if you collect any data, and Apple/Google now reject mobile apps without canonical privacy URLs.
**Pages many sites need but skip:** dedicated city/service-area pages for local businesses, blog/resources hub for SEO compounding, careers page if hiring matters, and a "trust" page consolidating reviews + certifications + guarantees.
- **How much does a small business website cost in 2026?** — $1,500–$15,000 for most small businesses, depending on whether you go DIY, freelancer, or agency. - **Should I use WordPress, Webflow, or Shopify for my business website?** — Shopify if you sell products. Webflow if design matters most and you want a working CMS. WordPress if you need maximum flexibility or already have a team that knows it. - **What is Core Web Vitals and how do I fix it?** — Three Google performance metrics — LCP (load speed), INP (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability) — that affect your search rankings. - **How fast should my website load?** — Under 2.5 seconds for the main content (LCP) on mobile 4G. Anything slower and you lose roughly 7% of conversions for every additional second.