Everyone has their own opinions on the most important elements of a Web site. Most will say that content is king. Some will say that usability and accessibility are most important. Others will tell you that the design of the site is the most crucial part of the process. However, it’s rare that you see someone discuss what pages a site really needs to have.
Kyle James, a consultant for HubSpot and the founder of dotEduGuru, a Web site dedicated to discussing all aspects of Web site development at higher education institutions, made a post a few weeks ago about the three pages that every Web site needs. He claims that every Web site (whether it’s a corporate site, a college Web site or just a personal site) must include an “About” page, a “Contact” page and a site map.
I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment. Some of the first pages I begin developing for any Web site I create are the “About” and “Contact” pages. Then, for any site that includes more than a handful of pages, I begin working on the site map.
What do you think? Do you always try to include these pages? Are there other pages you have to have on a Web site?
2 Responses
Curtiss,
Thanks for continuing the discussion. Content is still king, but there are still lots of fundamentals that require proper thought and these three simple pages are an absolute staple for any site. Of course your going to want a homepage and then your king content covers the rest, but make sure that people know who you are and why you do want you do. Take care.
Thanks for the post, Kyle. I didn’t mean to imply that content was not important. As I said, I agree with you 100%. Obviously, if you have stellar content, the contact and about pages become less important, but they still need to be on the site. If you have a lot of content, no matter how good and fresh it is, the site map is an absolute must (only if it’s going to be current and accurate, though).
It kind of ties in nicely with Michael’s doteduguru post on information architecture from the other day.