Common Sections For Your Website

Writen by Tim Priebe

I've focused in the past on some individual sections of your website that you should consider implementing. What I'm going to do now is give a brief overview of a number of pages and sections that are common in websites.

• Home Page This page should have a short descriptive paragraph or two, along with some sort of bulleted list that a website visitor can look at and very quickly get an idea of what the site is about. This could also be called Main or Welcome, among other things.
• About Us This page gives an overview about the company. If the staff is fairly small, staff information can be included on this page as well. In the case of one staff member, this page may be called About Me. It may also be known as About the Company, Company History or simply History.
• Projects This is a page to list past work you and your company has done. It can be anything from a simple list to detailed descriptions of each project. This can also be called Portfolio.
• Staff If you have a decent sized staff, you can split off the information on them from the About Us page and give them their own section. This can be anything from a simple list to a separate page on each staff member. This is also often used if an organization has a Board of Directors.
• Links A links page is pretty common. However, you should be careful about this page. In most cases, it should be very different from a personal links page. This may also be a called Partners.
• Contact This is where your email (or a form) will be, along with your phone numbers, mailing address, etc.
• Location If you want a separate place to give actual directions, along with a map, this is a great place to put it. You can also put links to online map websites, often directly to directions to your location. This can also simply be called Map or Directions.
• News This is just a page for the latest info on either your business, your website, or possibly both. This can also be archived copies of a newsletter that you mail out. More and more often, blogs are taking the place of a more formal news section.
• FAQ Just like it says, this is Frequently Asked Questions about your business and website. At the beginning, this should be populated with what you think the most frequently asked questions are. But as time goes on, you can update it with questions you really do get often.
• Gallery This can be anything from images of your physical location to pictures of your product. Also commonly known as Photos or Pictures.
• Virtual Tour If a simple gallery isn't enough, a virtual tour can give your website visitors the feeling of actually walking around in your physical location. This can be as simple as pictures, or make use of more complicated Virtual Tour technology, where you can actually stand in one location and look around.
• Calendar Although not all businesses warrant a calendar, many do. This can be anything from an actual grid-like calendar to a simple listing of events. It's also called Upcoming Events.
• Press If you or your business have been featured in any publications or on other websites, your own website is a good place to show that off. Have clippings of articles and links to online articles here. This section can also be known as Media.

These are just some of the more common website sections for you to consider. Each website will likely have other sections that are specific to that company, or at least to that industry. Remember, the sky's the limit.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com