Less is more when it comes to website layouts, pages and calls to action.

Too many websites are crazy busy with too much information, too many menus, pages, popups and multiple calls to action. The confused mind always says no. That’s why simple, minimalistic websites are usually more effective in growing your list and client base.

The 5 pages I recommend as a starting point are:

1. Welcome page

I learnt about the 3-second Grunt Test from Donald Miller, founder of StoryBrand, and it’s a really great way to evaluate your welcome page. Donald says that we need to be able to open our laptop, show someone our website for 3 seconds, and then they should be able to answer these 3 questions:

What is it that you offer?
How will it make their life better?
One ‘obvious’ call to action

Take a look at how I’ve applied the Grunt Test on my welcome page. And feel free to use what I have here to begin writing your own page.

2. About Page

I like an ‘About Me’ page to be light, friendly, easy to read and show a person’s personality. This is not the place to share your life story. You’ll see on my About Me page that I do share a ‘background’ story, but it’s both brief and interesting. Here are some things you might choose to share on your About page:

Your values
Qualifications
Social proof testimonials
Instagram feed
Your business geniuses story

3. Offerings Page

Commonly referred to as the ‘Work With Me’ page, this could be a single page with your core offering or it could have a submenu with individual pages for each offer that you have.

Simplicity is the key here again. The more offers you have, the more confusion a potential client will have as to what action to take. A simple offering menu might look like this:

A paid introductory single session offer.
A session package.
A course or small group program.

4. Blog

I think it’s really important to have free, ungated (no sign-up required) content on your website and the best way to do that is via a blog. Please do call it a blog, because that’s what people are used to looking for. If you call it something else, like ‘resources’, then it can be missed altogether. I suggest you take some content that has performed well on your social media account and repurpose that into blogs.

5. Contact Me Page

Your ‘Contact’ page is the simplest page on your website. People just need to know the basics, such as how they can reach you by email or phone, or both. Here is my Contact Me page — this is how simple it can be.

And don’t forget your website footer!

Due to GDPR, it is now essential for all websites to have a link to their ‘Terms of Use’ and ‘Privacy Policy’. For more information on this and GDPR take a look at the resources offered by Legally Shalini, including this GDPR Compliance Checklist.

The footer is also where I insert my newsletter sign up.

Finally, if you are looking to redo your website or create it from scratch, then here is how to create a beautiful website on Squarespace for next to nothing.

Over and out,