How to Properly Design a Services Page

How to Properly Design a Services Page

The homepage is likely the most popular page on your website. But after the homepage there are one or two other pages of almost equal importance. One of those pages is the Services page.

After the homepage, the Services page often competes with the About page, the Work page, the Contact page, and maybe even the Pricing page for the second most trafficked page. These pages are all important, but today we are going to focus on the importance of the Services page and how you can make this page a converting machine for you and your clients.

How to Properly Design a Services Page

How to Properly Design a Services Page

The Basics of Services Page Design

The Services page is often the second or third link in a top navigation. Businesses understand that new visitors to a business site are looking for information about the company.

New website visitors check out the homepage for the basics. From there, the visitors dig deeper into who the company is and what they offer. This is where the visitor often navigates to the Services page to understand in more detail what the company offers. The visitor is trying to figure out if they should contact the company to speak with someone or to request a quote or to even begin working together.

The Headline and Sub-headings

I’m a fan of headlines on each page. I feel like a person should be able to scan your page for the basic information and they should be able to do it in a second or two.

When someone visits your Services page they should see a Services headline at the top of the page. This reinforces that the person is on the page they wanted to find. The last thing you want is someone to wonder if they are even on your Services page. Make it obvious.

Headlines

Next, each of your services should be listed with sub-headings. This allows the visitor to quickly assess what your company offers. It’s a good experience for the person to quickly realize if they are in the right place. If they realize maybe the company isn’t for them they can leave or they can dig a little deeper. It’s good to be honest about what you do. It saves you and the site visitor time. Think about those inquiries you get that don’t turn out. Good Services page design can help alleviate some of these no-go inquiries.

Short vs. Long Form

The next question depends on how much detail you want to include on your Services page. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to how long your Services page should be. If you offer quite a few services (more than four perhaps) it might be best to have snippets of information with links to an entire page about each service. You could also link to your portfolio with examples for each type of service offered.

Visualscope Studios
Visualscope Studios

If you are a smaller firm or a firm that offers just one or two main services you can probably include all the information on the Services page. Don’t be afraid to make the page long-form. Visitors will read all of the information if they are really interested in your services. In most cases, the people that are willing to read all the details are the best customers. You could create the long-form page as a way to find the best potential clients.

Call-To-Action

An important feature on a Services page that sometimes is overlooked is the call-to-action.

Consider the mindset of the visitor to the Services page. They have found your homepage. They understand the basics of your company. They were interested in what you offer so they visited your Services page and read all the details about what you can offer them that will make their life better, easier or more profitable. They finish reading the page. They may have checked out your portfolio and navigated back to the Services page for one last look.

Now they’re ready to contact you and they can’t find the contact call-to-action. Perhaps the link to the contact page is way back at the top of the page or even buried in the footer as a small link.

The Services page needs a call-to-action. It should be accessible probably near the top of the page and also near the bottom of the page. You could include the contact form right on the Services page, but at least include a link or a visual for the person to contact your company via form, email or telephone.

Mule Design
Mule Design

Video

A trend today is video.

People are viewing videos online in great numbers. Just view the YouTube statistics to get an idea for how important video is for Web users.

Video is something to consider for a variety of pages on your site including your Services page. The video probably won’t take the place of the textual and visual content on the page. Instead, think of video as a complement to the other content. Another reason to keep the textual content on the page is that search engines can’t quite crawl video. I’m sure it will happen in the near future, but until then you’ll want to include the textual description of your services.

Also, some people prefer to read instead of watching a video. It can also be a pain to watch video in a large office with other people sitting nearby. It can also be very frustrating to have the video auto-play so watch out for that if you’re considering video on any of your pages.

Periscope
Periscope

Is a Services Page Even Necessary?

After researching for this article I noticed that some companies do not have a Services page. I thought this was interesting because from the analytics I have seen on a variety of sites, the Services page is often one of the top three to five most popular pages.

But is a Services page necessary?

You can probably get away without a Services page if you clearly state what you offer on your homepage. It’s important to make sure new visitors understand exactly what you provide. It’s interesting to see the number of business websites that don’t make it clear what they have to offer their clients. Maybe these companies are so big and get so many referrals that they don’t need to be as clear with their services on their websites.

A Services page might also not be necessary if you have a good portfolio or work page. People can see a basic headline on your homepage of what you offer. They can then scan your portfolio and quickly realize the kind of work you provide. It would be enough to entice them to contact you and inquire about your services.

The best example I can think of where a Services page may not be necessary would be if you want people to really question exactly what it is you do. This might entice more inquiries, which can be a good thing. You might feel you can better sell to people when they call.

More Examples of Excellent Services Page Design

Here are a few more examples of Services pages for inspiration.

Quite Curious
This is a portfolio, but the services are listed near the top

Quite Curious

Ted Goas
Ted Goas

Urban Influence
Urban Influence

Sarah Lynn Design
Sarah Lynn Design

Image Haus
Image Haus

Rhino Group
Rhino Group

Blue Fountain Media
Blue Fountain Media

Kaizenet
Kaizenet

iLean Solutions
iLean Solutions

Web Art Sense
Web Art Sense

Conclusion

We are constantly being reminded by blog posts around the internet of the importance of the home page, the about page and the layout and content of our websites.

Do you place a lot of importance on your services page? Have you found any different ways of enticing visitors to inquire via the services page?

Please share your comments and opinions with us in the section below.

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