One of the most frequently asked questions concerning both a web designer and the clients needing a website is – how many pages should a website have?
In this article, you will find the answer to this question and other important information related to website pages.
What are Website Pages
A website page is simply a part of a website that provides information to the user and may contain text, images, videos, graphics, links to other pages, etc.
In the technical sense, a webpage is a document written in HTML and contained within a web server which can be accessed by entering the URL for that web page.
To understand the concept of a website and web pages better, we can use a book as an analogy whereby – A “complete book” can be referred to as a “website”, whereby each of the “pages in the book” can be referred to as “webpages”.
WordPress Website Pages vs Posts
If you are using the world’s most popular CMS – WordPress to power up your website, you might begin to wonder if there is a difference between WordPress pages vs posts.
While the two might want to seem similar on the surface, they behave quite differently and has their respective specialized functions.
A WordPress website page is static, timeless, and organized in a hierarchical form – such as child and parent pages. This is why a page in this case is best used to design website pages such as About Us, Services, Contact Us, etc on your website
WordPress Posts, on the other hand, are dynamic, have timestamps, and are arranged in chronological order – in the order of their published date. They are best used to publish press releases, informational guides, How-Tos articles, and more – such as Facebook Newsroom, What is Online Presence, etc.
How many Pages Should a Website Have
There have been several debates as to how many pages should a website have. While some agreed that 5-7 pages are okay for a standard website, some believe 4 pages should be enough.
It should also be noted that; a website is not limited to a particular number of pages – depending on the project scope.
This implies while some website project scope can be covered with 5 – 10 website pages, some can have up to 17 – 35 website pages and above.
In order to know how many pages a website should have, we’d have to take a look at the most important website pages and optional standard pages to help you make the right decision.
Important Pages a Website Should Have
Making a decision and deciding how many pages should a website have can be tricky. However, regardless of the scope of your project, there are some important pages your website should have.
Some of the important pages a website should have are;
- Homepage
- About Us
- Services/Products Page
- Contact Us
- Portfolio/Case Studies
Optional Web Pages a Website Should Have
In addition to important pages on your website, there are also optional website pages you can add to provide more information about your website.
Some of these optional website pages are;
- Blog/Press Releases
- Individual Services Page
- Custom 404 Error page
- Search page
- Sitemap page
- Frequently Asked Questions Page (FAQS)
- Terms and Conditions page
While the list is inexhaustible – depending on your project scope, the above is the list of optional website pages you might want to add to your website.
How To Decide the Number of Pages Your Website Should Have
Having now fully understood the list of important and optional pages a website should have, you might still find it a little bit difficult to decide the number of pages your website project should have.
In this case, the best way to decide how many pages should a website have is to list out the important pages first, then add the necessary optional standard website pages.
Do also note that the higher the number of your website pages, the longer it would take for the completion of your project – and also affects your project pricing.
Benefits of Having Website Pages
The benefit of having enough optimized website pages is that it makes your website easy and accessible for both your website visitors and search engines.
With an easy to navigate and optimized web pages, users would find it easy to get the information/products they want which in turn leads to a great user experience.
From The Author’s Desk
Since the subject of website pages can be very tricky, you might find it a bit hard to decide the right number of pages for your website.
For instance; A Website built for an Online Publisher is likely to have a lot of dynamic content than static content while a website built for a business owner is likely to have more static content pages than dynamic content pages.
To learn more about the right pages for your dream website – it is highly recommended you get in touch with a web creator to discuss your project scope.