Key Pages You Find on Successful Blogs & Websites

Blog readers are naturally curious. More than I’m a blog writer, I’m a blog reader. The number of websites or blogs that don’t share some of the basic pages is astounding. Based on several studies I’ve seen and my own stat tracking, you can be certain those sites are losing readers and customers.

It doesn’t take but a few hours to create a handful of the “must have” pages that not only show you are serious about your site, but will also make life much easier as your site and traffic grow.

1. About Us Page – Readers are naturally curious and want to know who they are doing business with or who may be writing what they are reading. Having an about page offers a sense of trust and when your readers trust you, your click-through conversions will increase. Shop around on some of your favorite websites or blogs, scan their “About” pages and gather an idea of what you like and dislike to develop your own. Use this as an opportunity to humanize yourself. With so many splogs floating around – personalizing yourself will have an undeniable long term effect.
2. Contact Page – A reader who takes the time to email you with questions is clearly sharing their interest in your site, product offerings and they deserve a timely response. Instead of using clickable links that can result in a flood of spam, you might wish to consider using a contact form.
3. Privacy Statement – Every professional website should have a privacy statement that explains how information on your site is collected, used and above all, what measures you take to safeguard that information. This is an explicit statement on behalf of the site owner that is a legal and binding document. Use of this statement will make your readers feel more confident in participating on your site.
4. Disclosure Statement – The Federal Trade Commission requires that anyone engaging in word-of-mouth marketing disclose relationships as such. Word-of-mouth marketing is a communication that’s made for the purpose of earning a profit. Affiliate product endorsements placed on blogs or websites is considered to be word-of-mouth marketing and requires disclosure.
5. Disclaimer Page – As a precaution, in our lawsuit happy world, you should include a disclaimer on your site to protect yourself from legal action. This is extremely important for those who may touch on business opportunities or health related items or remedies.

There are several other pages you may wish to consider based on the content you produce – some bloggers build a page of personal recommendations of niche related products, site maps, niche related resources or sometimes a page of most popular archive posts may be beneficial.

There’s any number of pages that you can create, but those listed above are pages you’ll want to create from the very beginning and update them as your website and traffic trends grow.