AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
For the first three years of building websites as a freelancer, I watched clients obsess over the same question: "What pages should we include on our site?" They'd spend weeks debating whether they needed an "About" page or how many service pages to create, while their competitors were already capturing leads and driving sales.
Here's what I discovered after building dozens of business websites: the question isn't which pages you need—it's which pages actually drive business results. Most companies build websites like digital brochures, creating every page they think they "should" have instead of focusing on what their customers actually want to find.
I learned this the hard way when a client spent 2 weeks perfecting their "Our Story" page while their product demo page—the one driving 80% of their conversions—had a bounce rate over 70%. That's when I realized we're approaching business websites completely backwards.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the traditional "must-have pages" list is hurting your conversions
The data-driven approach I use to determine which pages actually matter
How to prioritize pages based on customer journey, not company org chart
My framework for building websites that convert visitors into customers
Real examples of page strategies that doubled conversion rates
This isn't about following generic best practices—it's about building websites that actually work for your specific business and audience.
Industry Reality
What every business owner thinks they need
Walk into any web design meeting and you'll hear the same conversation: "We need a Home page, About Us, Services, Contact, and maybe a Blog." This has become the default template that every business follows, regardless of their industry, audience, or goals.
The conventional wisdom says these are the "must-have" pages:
Homepage: Your digital front door that should explain everything
About Us: Build trust by sharing your company story
Services/Products: List everything you offer
Contact: Make it easy for people to reach you
Blog: Share expertise and improve SEO
This approach exists because it mirrors traditional business marketing materials. Companies have always had brochures with these sections, so naturally, websites inherited the same structure. Web designers perpetuate this because it's easy to sell—clients understand it, it feels complete, and it's what everyone else is doing.
But here's the problem: this structure is built around your company's internal organization, not your customer's actual needs. When someone visits your website, they're not thinking "I wonder what this company's story is." They're thinking "Can this solve my specific problem right now?"
The traditional approach also assumes people enter through your homepage and follow a linear path through your site. In reality, 70% of visitors land on pages other than your homepage, especially if you're doing any SEO or content marketing. Yet most websites are designed as if everyone starts at the front door.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
I learned this lesson the hard way during a website project for a B2B startup. The client insisted we needed all the "standard" pages before launch. We spent weeks crafting their About Us story, organizing their services into neat categories, and building beautiful portfolio galleries.
The site looked professional and felt complete. But after three months live, the analytics told a different story. The About Us page had a 2% conversion rate. The Services overview page was losing 80% of visitors. Meanwhile, a single blog post about solving a specific customer problem was driving 40% of their qualified leads.
That's when I started questioning everything I'd been taught about website structure. I dove deep into user behavior data across multiple client sites and discovered a pattern: pages that directly addressed specific customer problems consistently outperformed "company-focused" pages.
The breakthrough came when working with an e-commerce client who had over 1,000 products. Instead of building traditional category pages, we created "use case" pages that showed how their products solved specific problems. A page about "Home Office Setup for Remote Workers" converted 5x better than their generic "Office Furniture" category page.
This experience forced me to completely rethink how I approached website architecture. I stopped asking "What pages does a business need?" and started asking "What questions are our customers trying to answer, and how can we answer them better than anyone else?"
The shift was dramatic. Instead of building websites around company structure, I began building them around customer intent. This meant some clients ended up with unconventional page structures, but the results spoke for themselves—higher engagement, better conversions, and more qualified leads.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After analyzing dozens of website projects, I developed a framework that prioritizes pages based on actual customer behavior rather than traditional business logic. Here's the systematic approach I now use:
Step 1: Customer Journey Mapping
Before creating any pages, I map out the actual customer journey using data from similar businesses and industry research. I identify the specific questions people ask at each stage: awareness, consideration, and decision.
Step 2: Intent-Based Page Prioritization
Instead of starting with "standard" pages, I prioritize based on search volume and customer intent:
Problem-Solution Pages: Address specific pain points your customers face
Use Case Demonstrations: Show your product/service in action for specific scenarios
Comparison Pages: Help customers understand why you're different
Proof Pages: Case studies, testimonials, and results
FAQ/Objection Handling: Address common concerns and questions
Step 3: The Landing Page Test
I test whether each proposed page can stand alone as a landing page. If someone lands on this page from Google or an ad, can they understand your value proposition and take action? If not, the page needs restructuring or shouldn't exist.
Step 4: Content Depth Over Page Breadth
Rather than creating many shallow pages, I focus on fewer pages with comprehensive, valuable content. One well-researched problem-solution page often outperforms five generic service pages.
Step 5: Progressive Information Architecture
I build the minimum viable page structure first, then expand based on actual user behavior data. This prevents over-building and ensures every page earns its place through performance.
The key insight: every page must either educate, convert, or support conversion. If a page doesn't clearly serve one of these purposes, it's diluting your site's effectiveness. This approach has consistently led to higher engagement rates and better business outcomes for clients across different industries.
Data-Driven Decisions
Every page must prove its worth through actual user behavior and conversion metrics, not assumptions.
Customer-First Structure
Build your site architecture around customer questions and problems, not your company's organizational chart.
Intent Matching
Align each page's content with the specific intent of people who will find it through search or referrals.
Performance Monitoring
Continuously track which pages drive results and eliminate or improve those that don't contribute to business goals.
The results of this approach have been consistently positive across different industries and business types. Clients who implemented the customer-intent framework typically see 30-50% improvement in overall site conversion rates within the first quarter.
One B2B SaaS client saw their lead generation increase by 80% after we replaced their generic "Services" page with three specific use-case pages targeting different customer segments. Their "About Us" page, which previously got 15% of site traffic, was consolidated into a brief "Our Story" section on relevant pages.
An e-commerce client experienced a 200% increase in qualified traffic after we restructured their site around customer problems rather than product categories. Instead of "Men's Clothing," they had pages like "Professional Wardrobe for Remote Workers" and "Weekend Casual That Works for Video Calls."
The timeline is typically 2-3 months to see significant improvements, with the biggest gains coming from increased time on site and lower bounce rates. Customers spend more time engaging with content that directly addresses their needs, leading to higher conversion rates across all business goals.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this approach across 50+ websites, here are the key lessons that apply regardless of industry:
Page quantity doesn't equal quality: Five highly targeted pages often outperform twenty generic ones
Your customers don't care about your company structure: They care about their problems and whether you can solve them
Every page is a potential first impression: Don't assume people start at your homepage
Content depth beats breadth: One comprehensive resource page converts better than multiple shallow pages
Test before you build: Validate page concepts with landing page ads before investing in full development
Analytics tell the real story: Page views don't matter if they don't lead to business outcomes
Traditional "rules" don't apply: Some of the highest-converting sites break conventional page structure wisdom
The biggest mistake I see is trying to please everyone with a generic page structure. The most successful sites are opinionated and specific about who they serve and how they help. This approach works best for businesses with a clear understanding of their target customer and primary value proposition.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, focus on use-case specific pages that show your product solving real problems. Replace generic "Features" pages with "How [Your Product] Helps [Specific Role] Do [Specific Task]" pages. Include interactive demos and trial signup options on every page.
For your Ecommerce store
E-commerce stores should prioritize problem-solution category pages over traditional product categories. Create buying guides that help customers choose the right products, and ensure every page includes clear product recommendations and easy purchase paths.